ЕЛ Y: ES: 5S
BRITAIN’S BIGGEST SELLING COMPUTER WEEKLY
IT'S WERE!
@ World’s greatest games machine arrives in the UK - page 2
@ Exclusive hands-on review of PC Engine Il - page 49
GAMERS FACE STE ii
Why these classics wont tun on Atari's new machine - page ny YOU 347 PRIZE WINNERS CHRISTMAS COMPETITION?
60 GREATEST GAMES
THIS WEEK l= ae
CONTENTS [REGULARS
FEAT OF ENGINEERING
You thought the PC Engine was great? Wait till you see the follow up...
IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER Microprose's latest game breaks new ground in landscape realism
THE ACCENT ON LEARNING
A set of language learning programs tailor themselves to your needs
BUILD YOURSELF A BARGAIN
By making a PC from spare parts you can save a fortune
49
53
COMPETITION WINNERS 60 How did you fare in our £12,000 giveaway?
NEWS 2 VOUCHERS 17 Shopping for hardware or software? Save £10 with the Express vouchers! BUYER'S GUIDE:
50 TOP GAMES 19
Our advice on the best monitor-side entertainment
READERS’ CLASSIFIED ADS 30 Hundreds of second-hand bargains could be yours
EXPRESS SALES 40 The place to shop for
the best bargains
JOBS 44 LETTERS 57 TECH TIPS 58 COMMENT 62
YOUR MACHINE
Latest games console will arrive next week
UK AWAITS NEW SUPER PC ENGINE
The much vaunted PC Engine Il , the- Super Grafx, will be generally avail- able in the UK within the next week, Express can reveal.
British games console importers were last week racing to secure orders of the remarkable machine from Japan, where it is currently outselling even the Nintendo. European importers have been searching for PC Engine sources since the Grafx (pronounced 'grafex) was launched three weeks ago.
It is understood that technicians in Japan are already producing PAL ver- Sions of the machine which will work on British television sets. SCART versions Which will work on standard computer monitors are more readily available.
The Grafx is the followup to the PC Engine which was launched by NEC in Japan three years ago. Then NEC, one of the world's largest electronics compa- nies, decided that the British market was too small to make a launch worthwhile.
As a result grey importers have sprung up around the country over the past 12 months, and have created a healthy user base for the machine. Some
* Grafx: futuristic games machine due soon in this country
estimates put that as high as 5,000.
The Super Grafx is being touted as the most impressive games machine in the world. It boasts 128 sprites and more than 4,000 colours. Sound capabili- ties have been drastically improved and the external styling of the machine is in keeping with its futuristic feel. It is nearly twice the size of the original Engine.
NEC has left the old 8-bit processor in the machine but has re-worked the cus- tomebuilt video chip. This has the effect of offering blistering scrolling.
The PC Engine il will cost about £275 when it arrives here, but leading importers are confident that the high price will not deter dedicated gamers.
NEC has initially launched the machine with just one game – 3D shoot- 'emup Battle Ace. Given the machine's success more games are expected in the near future.
UK importer Ny Wong of Supervision told Express: "We're getting the first ones in England with only one game. But | think it will sell well – the graphics are
So much nicer. But the machines are sell- ing so well in Japan it is hard to get hold of them,"
A spokesman for PC Engine supplier Mention said: “Its main competition will be the Sega Megadrive. But even for £250 to £300 the Grafx will do well. There are going to be a lot of people advertising availability straight away, but it's hard to know just how many will actu- ally be around."i * A full and exclusive review of the Grafx appears on page 49.
mm Show spotlights wc growth "reds
Two of the most exciting areas of com- puting – networking and multimedia — аге to be given their own halls at the forth- coming Which Computer? Show.
Despite years of relatively slow growth it is being predicted that the next four years will see a boom in networking.
Multimedia — the merging of computer, video and compact disc — is one of the more exciting developments and will prove attractive even to those visitors not enthralled by more businesslike affairs.
The Which Computer? Show will be held from April 24th to 27th at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. For more details call 01-948 9841.8
Getting the Willis
Its back. Ultra violence returns to your computer screen with the imminent launch of Die Hard.
Based on last year's hit movie. starring Bruce Willis, the game includes lots of martial combat, blowing things up and shooting horrid terrorists and other unsavoury types.
There are also digitised images in the game culled from the movie, as well as 3D gameplay ‘scenes. Its out this week on the PC with a C64 version due in March.
Call publisher Activisonon — 0734 311666.8 * Willis: computer shooting
1* NEN COMPUTER EXPRESS « 13 JANUARY 1990
A
THIS WEEK NEWS)
Atari under fire from publishers over STE incompatibility problems
Many of the best games of the past three years will not run on Atari's new STE.
Titles such as Populous, Gunship, Kick Off, Speedball, Stunt Car Racer and Rik Dangerous have been found to be incompatible with the new system and software publishers аге frantically attempting to re-configure those games which will not run. Many have succeeded in releasing new ‘STE-compatible’ ver- sions, but hundreds of thousands of old games are still in circulation.
Many of the publishers have criti- cized Atari's treatment of the upgrading process, particularly the firm's insistence that any such difficulties are the sole responsibility of the software house.
Within 24 hours of last week's Express exclusive warning of compatibil- ity problems with some programs, it had emerged that more than a dozen top ST games will not run on the STE.
Atari has been forced to admit that an estimated one in twenty games won't run on the new machine. It has asked a leading distributor to compile a list of those titles which fail to load.
REWRITTEN
Software houses such as US Gold, Micro- prose, Electronic Arts, Digital Integration and Mirrorsoft have taken their games back to programmers and re-written those areas which snag on the STE.
Buyers are advised to look out for ‘STE-compatible’ stickers on games, or to consult their dealer. All the publishers say they will exchange old games for new versions, as they become available.
TOP GAMES HIT BY
By COLIN CAMPBELL and MARK HIGHAM
decided to ignore the problem where it affects games which they consider to be too old to warrant a re-write. Mirrorsoft, for example, has decided not to change its Speedball game.
Other publishers have taken immedi- ate action and have managed to make changes relatively quickly. US Gold has changed Ghouls 'n' Ghosts and Strider, both of which had been problematic, Ocean intercepted New Zealand Story and Anco whipped Kick Off into shape within days of locating the problem.
Microprose has already fixed Mr. Heli, Rik Dangerous and 3D Pool. How- ever, this will not affect those games which have already been bought by STE owners and those ST users hoping to upgrade in the future.
Martin Moth of Microprose com- mented: "The stupid thing about the STE is the amount of time we've been given by Atari. We couldn't foresee this coming because we didn't get our STE delivered early enough."
At Anco, Grace Sumner said: “It’s not our fault. We weren't informed about the new machine in time. But if anyone has problems they can send the disk in and we'll change it within 24 hours." She added that this inconvenience would "probably cost us a lot of money".
Cathy Campos at Mirrorsoft said: "The hardware manufacturer should con- sult the software houses if there's a prob-
for games released before the launch of the STE is madness."
At EA's development department Joss Ellis explained: “We'll have a new version of Populous by the end of the month, and we'll make better use of the STE so it will look more like the Amiga version. Because of slight alterations in the disk speed of the STE, the protection fails and the game won't load."
EA says it will not change Arctic Fox, however, which has also been found to be incompatible.
Apart from commercial software, it is estimated by the ST Club that 60 per cent of colour public domain games will not run on the upgrade, and as many as 80 per cent of colour demos.
JUMPING IN Atari's software development manager Bob Katz told Express: "We estimate that about five per cent of ST games won't run on the STE. That's about usual with an upgrade of any kind. This comes from. programmers jumping in and expecting to find everything in the same place in the memory map as before." He said software publishers had been informed of developments in good time.
A spokesman for Atari said: “The STE is better value for money and a bet- ter machine, If a software house's prod- uct isn't compatible then the onus is on that publisher to do something about it."
* Meanwhile, Electronic Arts has run into trouble with its new release Hound of the Shadow.
А bug in a number of copies of
* Big names in trouble on the STE: (from the top) Stunt Car Racer, Populous, Kick Off and ‘Speedball
to ship out a new version of the promising ST game. According to the firm, people using STs which run the operating system TOS 1.09 will find that the game crashes during an early sequence.
According to EA's Leslie Mans- ford the bug causes the operating system to “grab too much from the memory too quickly.” She added: “We don't think too many people have been affected but we're now shipping out a new iion which will be fully compatible."m
However, some publishers have lem. For them to blame the programmers the machine has forced the company Silencing the big guns of DTP Low cost desktop publish- 22% _ SALES OF DTP SOFTWARE per cent and all others com- ing packages are finally = THROUGH DEALERS IN 1989 bined 13 per cent. breaking the traditional In 1988, PageMaker and domination of high priced їй Apple PageMaker Ventura held a combined products such as Ventura, E] DOS PageMaker share of 100 per cent. according to new market jJ Quark Xpress "People are starting to research. 15% Timeworks ommum — realise that just because a
In a report published last О Ventura soumo package is low cost that
week by Wharton Information О Others swes — doesn't mean it's low quality,” Services, the £150 package said researcher Andrea Whar- Timeworks Publisher took a ^ relatively high retail prices. dealers all over the country. — ton. 34 per cent share of the mar- Wharton estimates that Apple PageMaker had Timeworks Publisher is ket by volume. It's the first during October 1989 DTP 22 per cent of the market, available for the PC and ST time such big guns as Ve- buyers spent £1.6 million on 005 PageMaker 15 per cent, priced £129 and £99 includ- tura Publisher and Page- DTP software. Ventura Publisher 13 per ing VAT. Publisher GST can be Maker have sold less than a The market research cent, Quark Xpress 3 per contacted on 0480 budget package despite their {итп spoke to nearly 200 cent, Timeworks Publisher 34 496789.Ш
Driving force
A remarkable new Autoroute Plus overlay has been launched to give PC-owning drivers even more travelling options.
The new module will allow you to Choose a place you are visiting, pick a time fame Md езу be frd s HS I MN
see.
So, visitors to, say, Bristol, would be able to see all the places of historic interest within a one-hour drive. Or you can see where all the shopping precincts are within half an hour of your home.
The Drive Time Contours Module costs £249 with AutoRoute Plus itself being £299,
Publisher NextBase is also planning to launch a French version of Autoroute Plus for the PC. The price of Autoroute on the ST has dropped from £149 to £70 following a spe- cial offer cut to £49. Call 0784 460077.8
NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 13 JANUARY 1990 • 3
THIS WEEK
| say will appeal to hardened bargain hunters.
there to offer buyers post-Christmas bargains.
Firebird s Wings clipped
Firebird, the familiar games label which has launched such great games as Elite, Bubble Bobble and Sentinel has been all but abandoned by owner Microprose.
In a major shake-up confirmed last week the firm has stated that Firebird games will now be a rarity. Over the past few months dozens of Firebird titles have been released including Rik Dangerous and Quartz,
Also, the six-month-old Microstatus label has been scrapped. The firm feels it performs much the same job as Rainbird but lacks brand loyalty among adventur- ers and strategists.
Microprose had been responsible for five labels — Rainbird, Firebird, Microstyle, Microstatus and Microprose. Last week a spokesman for the company told Express: "We felt that five was a bit much for anyone and there was a lot of overlap- ping. Now we want just Microprose for the militarytype games, Microstyle for the big name games and Rainbird for the strategy titles."
Microstyle recently scored a number one hit with the fast driving game Stunt Car Racer.
The spokesman added: "Firebird tended to be regarded as a bit of a bud- get label, so we've decided to drastically reduce the number of games released under it. If something doesn't really make the grade for one of the other labels we might consider releasing it on Firebird, but for the moment, it's dormant."
Both Firebird and Rainbird were bought last summer from British Telecom for an undisclosed fee. However, the deal was struck shortly after the launch of Microstyle and Microstatus. The firm had already voiced fears that the similarities between the various labels would cause
The first All Formats Computer Fare (sic) is due to be | ‘staged at London's New Horticultural Hall on February 10th. It is hoped that nearly 200 ‘box shifters’ and dealers will be
The idea behind this event has been compared to the ШЕСЕ inim ot Sey sta and.
Peripherals could sell their goods to eager users.
The organiser of the All Formats Show, Bruce Everiss, ‘says that the theory is that every dealer pays for little more than a trestle table in the hall. By keeping overheads down the dealers can sell end-of-stock goods and more attractive
New show to offer bargains galore for all formats -
A new computer show is being planned which the organisers Microfair was one of the best buying events in the country.
We want to do the same thing for all the computer formats. “Dealers are only being asked for £100 per stand so we
think it will be easy to fill the place up. And they'll be keen to
sell all that surplus stock left over from Christmas. There'll be
|
goodies to those looking for a good buy. bargains everywhere. А real bonanza." | "Its а bargain hunter’ paradise," enthused Everiss. The entrance fee is £3, Сай 0225 447453 for more — | “When the Spectrum was at the height of ts populariy the ZK бав fe show. | 2:
Confusion as 6128 ROM sales are stopped -
RIGHTS ROW HALTS CPC 464 UPGRADES
Owners of Amstrad СРС464 machines hoping to upgrade to a 6128 have been blocked by Amstrad and Locomotive Software.
Until recently it had been possible for 464 owners to upgrade to the more versatile and powerful 6128 by buying a simple ROM chip from Amstrad's returns department. Some third party dealers had latched onto this and were selling the device for as little as £20.
Unfortunately Locomotive, who wrote the operating system and the BASIC for the CPC, licences out the 6128 BASIC to Amstrad. Therefore it can claim a share of profits made from indi vidual sales of any product which utilises its software technology.
Locomotive has blocked sales of the ROM until Amstrad сап come to a "suit. able royalty agreement”.
* Amstrad CPC: ROM upgrade path blocked
Amstrad says it was not aware that the CPC ROMs were being sold as an upgrade. "There is no upgrade path for the 464 and there never has been,” explained a spokesman for the company. "We were just supplying the ROMs as legitimate spare parts, we didn't know
А пем computer system from passing through already used in France is being considered by signals if there is a possi- апа West Germany. BR British Rail which it is bility of clashing with Says it was considering
| hoped will be able to another train. It will also ^ computerising its system avoid disasters such as be able to govern train before the tragic the Clapham crash of speeds in particularly Clapham crash which December 1988. congested areas. claimed 35 lives.
The multimillion- Variants on the sys- It will initially be
pound system will auto- tem, known as Automatic — tested on the Paddington | тайсайу prevent trains Train Protection, are to Bristol line.
they were in fact being sold as an upgrade to the 464."
When asked if Amstrad would con: sider repackaging the ROMs and selling them to 464 owners, he said: "There's no provision for that in the licence [with Locomotive]. We don't feel that it's a clear upgrade. It's really not all that sim- ple and so we've squashed it.”
Now, anyone hoping to obtain such а ROM will have to send in their old faulty ROM to prove they are simply seeking to fix their machine rather than attempting an unofficial upgrade.
Locomotive's boss Howard Fisher told Express that he had sought to stop the sale of the ROMs but added that he would be prepared to see them made available to the public should Amstrad decide to negotiate. Locomotive and Amstrad share the rights on the ROMs.
Put a Tiger in your ST
A new music program for the ST has been launched for budding producers of ‘profes- sional’ sounds.
Tiger Cub from Massachusetts-based Dr. T offers 12-track tape recorder style sequencing with real time graphic editing of notes. It also features loop recording, one Step object-oriented editing and a built-in con- ductor track.
It’s available in the UK from МСМ on 01- 724 4104. An Amiga version is on the way. However, owners of both machines will need 1Mb of memory to run the program.’
Sayonara Tosh
Toshiba says it is close to developing a word processor which can handle the complex Japanese language. It utilises neural technology and should be avail- able in three years.
Written Japanese is a mixture of three alphabets and has not lent itself
some confusion (Express 52)
well to the word processing age.
4+ NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS « 13 JANUARY 1990
THIS WEEK pint Sa гп
MS-DOS for Ocean game was top seller says Gallup
beginners
Mindscape, famous for its range of fantasy and strategy games for the PC, Apple Mac and Atari ST, has just | launched a series of DOS-based util- ity products which the company views as its first step into the 'seri- ous’ PC world.
The series begins with three soft: ware packages designed very much with the novice DOS user in mind. DS Tutor is an interactive DOS teaching program | which employs everyday language to explain the finer points of DOS command | syntax. In conjunction with this tutor, | users can have DS Help — a RAM-based help line — permanently in memory. Users | encountering problems сап extricate themselves by simply invoking the pop-up | help screen.
DS Manager is a user interface for DOS, featuring password entry control, simplified access to applications and | more. All three programs cost £29.99.
For slightly more advanced users there's DS Optimize, a utility designed to | increase the performance of the hard disk; DS Recover which enables users to | regain deleted files; DS Backup Plus, a | data protection system rendering data held on hard disk completely secure; and DS Squeeze, an archiving and file com. pression utility designed to increase hard drive capacity by up to 75 per cent. The four advanced programs cost £49.99
All Mindscape DOS utilities will work | with any PC with 256K or more of RAM. | For more information contact Mindscape on 044 486 545.
Wanted: Cyber businessmen
Britain's businesses are to rely heavily on a new breed of manager over the next few years - the computer literate manager.
According to the a British Computer Society report published last week, large com- | panies will have to start recruiting and training people who know how to run computers as | well as staff - called ‘hybrid managers’.
The report criticises the attitude that decision makers should simply ‘get Бу with technology. It also points out that much Progress can be made by merging ‘visionary ideas’ with an understanding of computers. |
Tim Hackworth of the BCS said: “Those who combine business and technical skills can name their own price. If you are computer lit- erate, you can improve your job prospects.”
Sound idea
А new company has been set up to pro- vide music and sound effects for com: puter games.
Sound Images is run by two former | in-house software musicians who have | set up the company using a grant from | the Governments Enterprise Allowance | Scheme. Tony Williams and Paul Tonge have worked for the likes of Psygnosis, | Hewson. and Virgin in the past, but reckon they've got more to offer gamers by working on their own
CHASE HQ WAY AHEAD’
IN XMAS CHART RACE
К now seems almost certain that Chase HQ was Britain's biggest sell- ing game for the last Christmas of the 1980s.
Market research firm Gallup was last week collating all the figures from its extensive network of dealers. While the firm will not know the year's most impor- tant top 10 until some time this week, it has stated that Ocean's driving game is so far ahead that nothing can catch it.
“Barring a complete disaster, Chase HQ will stay at number one," said Gallup's Feargal Murray. “It looks like being another good Christmas for Ocean."
The only doubt now appears to be which game will take the number two spot. Most people's tip for the top, Bat. man, was just holding off Ghostbusters Il for the week ending Friday December 22nd. Gallup says those two games will
definitely take positions two and three.
Amazingly, the resurrected old favourite Paperboy has made it to a chal- lenging fourth position while 1988's Christmas number one Robocop is at number six. Operation Thunderbolt, Turbo Outrun, Untouchables, Hard Drivin’ and Double Dragon Il are all jostling for favourable positions.
Gallup's chart is always about three weeks behind the buying week it reflects because of the time it takes to get all the information into its office. The games chart's Christmas number ones over the past three years have been Robocop, Outrun, and Gauntlet. The full top 10 will be in next week's Express.
Ocean's {айу of five games in the top 10 reflects an extraordinary year for the company which dominated the charts during last year. &
* Chase HQ: winning streak
We've made mistakes, says gloomy Olivetti
italian PC manufacturer Olivetti has been forced to admit that it has been losing ground in the frantic race for computing success.
The firm says it will have to lay off 500 workers in five different European manufacturing plants over the next 12 months. This follows predictions that profits for 1989 will be poor.
Olivett's managing director, Vittorio
| Cassoni, told Italian newspaper La Stamp
that his company had failed to react to
| the “speed and depth” of developments
in the computer market. He also admit- ted that competitors are causing the firm financial problems.
Prices of PCs, particularly 286 and 386 models, are sliding so rapidly that hardware manufacturers are being forced to re-appraise their position every few months. In order to compensate for sliced profit margins, jobs are being cut It is widely expected that more PC manu: facturers will be cutting back over the next year.
Cassoni claimed that internal re-
* Olivetti PCS286: High hopes for 1990
"Above all, there has been a sponta: neous fall in prices caused by technology linked to competition," he said.
organisation would mean a recovery for Olivetti this year. In the UK the firm is hop- ing to cash in on the low-cost power PC boom with its recently launched PCS286. That runs at 12MHz, comes with a twin floppy and costs £999.
Young lords it with Psion's mobile PC
Keen PC user Lord Young has Show urging UK firms to keep moved into the portable age abreast of new developments. with the recently launched Psion Prices for the Mobile Mobile Computer. MC200 start at £545 with PC- According to Psion's pub- versions costing licity people, фе deputy chair- 1,495, All are now available. man of the Conservative Party from branches of Dixons, plans to write his memoirs using — Rymans and Wildings. the A4 size machine. In the past Meanwhile, Psion has Lord Young has taken a profes- ^ announced a games bundle for sional interest in the fortunes of Ње old Organiser U. It includes a British computer manufacturers number of card games, logic such as Psion. As Secretary of puzzles and an underwater State for Trade and industry two combat affair and costs £29.95. years ago, he delivered a Ring for more details on speech at the Which Computer? 01-723 9408.
NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 13 JANUARY 1990 © 5
THIS WEEK [хз == нимага!
* Control your Amiga by thought
Brainwave onthe Amiga
West German cyberfreak Bernhard von DeBricken is designing hard- ware for the Amiga whichhe hopes will one day allow users to control on-screen cursors and mouse point- ers - with their minds.
This astonishing claim rests on von DeBricken's demonstration last week at the Chaos Computing Convention in Hamburg, where a headset device сот nected to an Amiga allowed users to alter colour cycling software by merely thinking about it. The headset system works on the principle of linking alpha waves produced by the human brain to digital signals readable by a computer.
At the moment the project is only in its infancy, but von DeBricken expects wire-free control of menu selections to
be an everyday occurence by the end of | the century. | Cyberspace here we соте! |
* MagnaCharter: top of the charts?
Go with the flow
PC owners hoping to get to grips with graphic organising will be pleased to learn of a new flow chart program.
MagnaCharter from Systemstar allows the user to divide the screen into separate column and row co-ordinates and then simply fit in the flowchart symbol. Intelligent links between the boxes are then drawn in auto- matically by the software.
It costs £100 standalone or £110 for | users with Microsoft Windows. More on 0992 500919. ®
Atari sets up boffins lab in Cambridge
Atari is planning to set up a boffins laboratory’ in Cambridge. similar to that once administered there by Sinclair Research
The firm i rching for suitable premises around the historic University town and an official announcement of the location is
urrently
expected early next month.
A spokesman preferred not to comment on the matter, saying that details of the project had not yet been finalised.
similar brainstorming venture in the mid-1980s as an attempt at producing a practical technical think tank. в
The latest Laser squad
Laser Personal Computers has launched a complete range of PCs from a mid-range XT to a powerful tower 386 system.
The double-drive XT comes with-a mono monitor and costs £750, the price rising to £1,360 for a high-resolution colour VGA system with 65Mb hard drive. There are also PS/2 Model 30- compatible expansion slots. The XT/3 is available with either 10 or 12MHz pro- cessor and the basic 640K RAM can be expanded to 1Mb on the motherboard or up to 12Mb via add-on cards.
There are also three AT-compatible
286 machines running at varying clock speeds — from 12MHz on the 286/2, to 16MHz on the 286/3 and a blistering 20MHz on the 286/4.
At the top of the range is the Laser 386 tower. It runs at 25MHz and come with 2Mb of RAM as standard. The basic model offers a 65Mb hard disk with a l4inch flat mono screen. That costs £3,350, and other display options are available at an increased price
Laser is also offering three desktop 386 machines, starting in price at £1,675 for a machine with a cut-down 386SX processor.
CPC'S LATEST KIC
* CPC owners are to be treated to football hit Kick Off. The best game of last year will this week hit the shops for Amstrad's oldest machine, with all the speed and features which have already wowed ST, Amiga, PC and C64 owners. It costs £9.95 and £14.95 (disk). More from publisher
Anco on 0322 92518.
Pinball wizardry
Flips! There's a new pinball game about to be released by French software house Loriciel
Called Pinball Magic, it includes most of the features which kept you enthralled in dingy arcade halls all those years ago. US Gold, which will publish the game in the UK, assures us that there is an ‘authentic’ tilt feature, dual flippers, loud sound effects and 12 ‘action-packed’ levels.
It's all jolly good fun, and it's out this week on the ST, PC, Amiga and CPC.
рст іп the club
A new user group has been formed for owners of the popular low-cost PC, the Olivetti PC1
The curiousiooking machine has thousands of users in the UK largely due to a strong presence in retail chains such as Dixons. According to founder member Mark Blackall the threeyearold PCI “receives little coverage in the national computer press despite being an excel: lent machine in many respects".
Members can look forward to a monthly newsletter and a diskbased magazine. Call 0924 892106 for more details of the group.
EDITOR · Martyn Lester FEATURES EDITOR · Andy Storer NEWS EDITOR : Colin Campbell
CONTRIBUTORS
Blake - Jason Holborn - Bertram Carrot - Rod Lawton • John Torofex - Pete Gerrard
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AD EXECUTIVES - Simon Moss « Helen Kirkhope ADMIN CO-ORDINATOR · James Leach
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AD TYPESETTING . Terry Turner
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G+ NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 13 JANUARY 1990
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See You At The 16 Bit Computer Fair - Jan. 12,13,14. Stand 25.
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Other Printers in Range... Prices on request | AMIGA 1084S stereo m Е ATARI Scart leads .............. T.V modulator 3 .£24. ATARI joystick/mouse ext leads
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Citizen 120D Printer ............. £125.00 | AMIGA Centronics printer cable.. . ATARI mouse mat 7
ss AMIGA Dust Cover........ .95 | ST Data Transfer lead.
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ALL FOR ONLY £599.95
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ETENE
SPECTRUM
NEW CHEAPO ment from start to finish Gregory Loses His k is the highly onninya, worthy and well respec dubious title of a new Mastertronic member of the beat'em-up community cheapo. It's the latest game from Don Barb. a superbly gory slash'em-
Priestly, a programmer who has up successfully builds on the orig: attracted a cult following ( поопіеѕ inal; and lastly, Operation Wolf, Ocean's at last glance th some devious Spiffingly good head on shoot-em-up.
arcade adventures peopled by huge. All in all, a very reasonable, maybe colourful and decidedly un-Spectrummy even me nd one that looking graphics. splashing out on if you don't own any of Gregory Loses His Clock continues the three best titles the Priestly tradition with you trying help the protagonist Gr alarm clock that, as in most arcade adventures, has been split into lots of pieces and put in lots and lots of hard to-find pl
orth
POKE OR TWO Faithful old regular pare seco ng solitary Multi
V games bu
already, graphi
Pokeing 399 or similar device,
into you
е the usual беп.
mustard. Well
iis! realy of infinite lives. It hasn't been tested the 48K version, but Jon's pretty MIX IT UP sure itll work Mega Mix fi Ocean, a compilation of Additionally, Mr M CI ell of Stoke. nly four games, provides quality, if not on-Trent has thrust a f his favourite a great deal of quantity. But the good опе liners on me. Try the following
news is that prepare to be surprised, astounded and shiny gl amazed all at the same time. them, and unlike most А der, haven't been languishing in Ocean's / AW 70,70,4 cupboard under the stairs for aeons R There's one dodgy title - The Real Normally this would have qualified it's
ostbusters - which, despite some author for a free gift of some descrip cartoonike graphics, isn't tion. Unfortunately, M made a Spectrumist jibes in his letter е to make do without.
Robin Alway
going to stimulate anyone's adrenal siv л this single drawback, һе! the compilation is top-hole entertain
gland. Apart frc
GET THOSE FINGERS READY - THE LISTING IS IN!
It seems centuries since | last gave you a listing to sprain your typing tendons on so here's an impressive one from Martin McKenzie, another of the talented multitude who put together the acclaimed Enigma Tape mag. It is long, but well worth the effort.
Once you've finished typing, run it, follow the on-screen instructions and play the cassette of your choice to oscillate the wiggly line in time to the music. Looks impressive - І promise. Huge thanks to Martin Mckenzie for sharing it with us.
1 REMI989 MARTIN MCKENZIE OF ENIGMA TAPE MAGAZINE. SEND SAE TO 15 WESTFIELD RD, INVERURIE, ABERDEENSHIRE ABS 9YR CLEAR 65535: BORDER 0: PAPER 0: INK 4: POKE23624, 68
RIGHT 1: CLS: LET m=32768: LET t=0 READ a: IF a=999 THEN GO TO 5 LET t=tta: POKE m,a: LET memtl: GO TO 3 IF t©30548 THEN PRINT "ERROR IN DATA": STOP PRINT "DATA OK"' '"PRESS SPACE TO ЕХГ TO SAVE TYPE GO TOlO"''"TO RUN TYPE RANDOMIZE USR 32768":STOP SAVE "SYNC" CODE 32768,250: STOP DATA 243,195,71,128,17,0,0,213,205,27 DATA 128, 209,28, 62, 0, 187, 32, 245,30,0 DATA 20,62,192,186,32,237,201,122,167,31 DATA 55,31,167,31,170, 230, 248, 170, 103, 123 DATA 7,7, 7,170, 230,199, 170,7,7,111 DATA 123,230, 7,238, 7,135,135, 135,198,194 DATA 50,66, 128, 22,0, 203,250, 126,170, 119 DATA 201,33, 64,156, 34, 226,128, 33, 64,158 DATA 34,228, 128, 33, 64,156, 34,230,128, 33 DATA 64,156, 34,232,128, 62, 255,50, 234,128 DATA 22, 96,30, 0,219, 254,203,119, 32,8 DATA 62,191,186, 40,8, 20, 24,5,175,186 DATA 40,1,21,28,213,205,27,128,209,62 DATA 127,219, 254, 230,1,254,0,202,240,1 DATA 42,232,128, 237, 75,228,128, 229,183,237 DATA 66,225, 204,212,128, 237, 75,228,128, 11 DATA 11,229,183, 237, 66,225, 204, 235,128,114 DATA 35,115, 35, 34,232, 128, 58, 234,128, 254 DATA 0,32,177, 42, 230,128,237, 75,228,128
PCW
FOUNT OF WISDOM Whenever a good desktop publishing package comes out it is followed by a host of add-ons: fonts and clip art and the like. | must admit to being dubious about clipart — somehow everything looks as as if it is made of Lego. Extra the other hand, can be useful.
t Exemplar Design is bringing out a range of extra fonts for Micro Design, the DTP program that had everyone rav ing earlier this year. The new fonts, it is claimed, are clearer than the suj
ees and print out significantly better on Tod GO FOR A DRIVE -—— A solution to the problem of transferring an behind it all is Jo duro ЮГО A LCS o DE S ced welkhoughtof add: - Semnal dr. овур models have s for the DTP program Stop Press, external drive. 5.25inch models have š been around years, but only now does 2 and details pe : an option for 3.5inch users appear. Compact Micro of Bradford sells an asily fitted external B drive for your it literally slots into a plug inside your machine - no soldering or anything required). This will enable you to transfer data and text files (in simple ASCII form) by the easiest route possible ~ by taking the disk from the PCW and inserting it into the PC The disk costs £94.95 and Compact on be reached on 0274 636652
GAME FOR A LAUGH
pack costs just £14.99 and includes The Lost Legacy of Xim (another of those adventures pop- ulated entirely by Scrabble words?) A Simple Case of Espi- onage, and Sir Lancelot.
1 Evans,
has pro
CORRUP;TIO36FFN Has that vital disk be able by LocoSc Well, the January ei has a feature on di rupted disks, and one of the progra designed especialy for tinkering graded s you examine corrupted by bit (almost literally) and copy out the undamaged chunks of a file to INSTANT TIP
another disk Thifty? You might consider getting a
jonstone’s new
Micro
The program costs £24.95, or £10 if ard index’ box from W Н Smiths for just youre upgrading: for more details, try 2.99, which holds up to a dozen disks. phoning 041-941 3120 Basil Pigg MSX2 utilises the graphics capability of these The MSX 2+ range of computers have computers, although MSX Central can been much talked about in this column, supply a couple of games that have been
aphics written just for the MSX 2+, Laydock 3D Special, and Star
and | have enthused over ihe g capability of these machines, which is far Last Il, F1 Spir superior y home computer on gen- — Ship Rendezvous. eral sale in the U.K If you wish to know more about these
Now it seems these computers can be Computers, and also the range of hard purchased in England, as MSX Central, а — ware and software that MSX Central can user group based in Coventry, is now supply, write to them at 14 The Wardens dealing in MSX hardware, and is able to Avenue, Allesley Village, Coventry, War supply not only SX 2+ computers, but — wickshire CV5 9GJ – and don't forget the also 128k and 256, Ram packs, and lots — stamped addressed enevelope more goodies including an MSX Digitizer
Before you all rush out and buy anMSX SOFTWARE SCENE 2+ computer, | think | had better point Alternative has just released Punch and out areas where the purchaser might Judy priced at £2.99. Also | see that a er er problem отри ne called Action Countdown is avail Japanese абе but | have no more details regarding this game other than its price hich is £ Blade Software tells me that Lazer ts first MSX release, will be out M capability ın January, and will be followed a month nly 64K — later with the Lords of CI of main RAM s barely adequate Additionally, Samdale Computers is for a modern computer. Hence MSX cen- es of Usas by Konami for tral offers RAM pac of £9.99. This game
And onto the price of th у. and this, at around £ uld not ntact Samdale Computers be too outrageous, but add on the price 1 742617, or alternatively, send of the extras needed and you are talking 14 Austral Way, Althorne. about &6/ M3 6DN. Indeed, should you and as you а! re particulars in regards the make use of excellent products at Samdale — check screens, the system is hardly Express Sales on page 40 below in
Another problem that | this magazine.
ои ers, being designed
eded to drop our 2:
el. F
of money, need a good monitor t the very high
of true
Keith Neal
BBC
INTERFACIAL CORNUCOPIA It's rare to see a BBC on TV these days, although it does still crop up occasion ally as the little machine connected to banks of measuring instruments. Its popularity in this role is due to a set of interfaces that are matched by no other home computer.
Looking from the front there is a disk drive port, printer port, user port, IMHz bus and the Tube. And along the back
(of a Master are the Econet port (optional), Audio out, Cassette port, RS423 interlace, Analogue port (joy
Stick) RGB out, Composite video and TV. That's a grand total of 13. But today | am going to concentrate on that jack of all trades — the RS423 serial port.
The BBC uses a chip called the 6850 ACIA for its serial communications. It is capable of baud rates between 75 and 19200, as opposed to the typical 1200 maximum offered by most modems. It is also capable of understanding eight dif. ferent word types, and it can make use of the interrupts of the 6502 processor.
For those interested in writing their own communications program, the 6850 status register is at SHEILA &08. Additional uses for programming the serial port include multiuser games and driving serial printers. For example, it is not common knowledge that you can use a computer as a PostScript printer!
terminal to a
NAME THAT SOIL Q. What have gardeners, and engineers got in common?
geographer A. Interest in soil of course!
Did you know for example there are some 700 different soils in the U.K alone, and in fact there is an organisa: tion called the Soil Survey which is dedi- cated to the study of soil? (I don't wish to brag, but | did in fact know this partic ular tidbit of trivia)
To move on, CR Software has no brought out an educational packag called Name that Soil aimed at budding soil scientists everywhere. The package sells for £30, and is a handy tool for professionals, but it can also be used in the classroom
USE IMAGINATIO! Do you know what makes me re angry, though? People who ring up.
some trivial problem
You know what | mean: "Ive got your piece of software and it doesn't work Seriously – there is an issue here: what
do you do when something doesn't fun. lion as expected?
My advice would be to forego the dis tressed phone call for a more profes sional approach. Try to imagine that you are the programmer and that you've got to debug the program, which preparing printouts, or screen dumps wherever possible
A step by step description, not only of the events leading up to a program crash, but also of all the circumstances surrounding it is also useful. Indeed many bugs are difficult to track down and so the more information you can give - the better. And finally, don't worry too much because there are far fewer really bad bugs than you think!
Andrew Brown
means
CPC
OCEAN’S TURBOCHARGED Not content with bringing us Batman - The Movie and The Untouchables at Christmas, those lads at Ocean have turned out another blockbuster.
Chase HQ is a conversion of Taito's briliant arcade original and those inclined to dismiss it as yet another rac ing game probably haven't played it The original is like a next generation Outrun - but fast!
Your aim, however, is not to avoid col lisions but to arrange them — with one You see it's not the ordi nary upstanding citizens you want to Т. bone off the road, but felonious baddies intent on escaping the law
You play the part of a law enforce. ment officer driving a turbocharged Porsche (makes a change from an unmarked Cavalier’), is sent оп vari ous perpetrator-chasing missions by the pouting Nancy at LA's Chase HQ.
Flashing light, er, flashing, you set off along the freeways, pursuing those per petrators with a limited time in which to catch up with them. When (if) you do so, their car is marked with an arrow and you have to ram it into submission to make a successful arrest.
Once you have successfully appre hended your first villain, you're sent on another — tougher — mission. And so it goes until all five levels are completed
All the way you're up against a pretty ferocious time limit, Sunday drivers who come out every day of the v an opponent just doesn't know when to give in.
To help you along is a nice 'turbo boost’ feature, which sends your Porsche rocketing off towards the hori zon at a hell of a lick, but the effect is only temporary, and once switched іп,
small proviso
ek, and
the boost can't be switched off. Cut in
the turbo heading into a bend and
you're heading for an armco sandwich All very well in the arcades, of course,
but the question has to be, can
produce a playable game on the US Gold al much excitement as a wet Wednesday in Scunthorpe
game style were simil
ted as
Turbo Outrun ger
and the perspective and
Fear not. The Ocean progr
ntastic job. Quite simply
mmers
have done a
there isn't another racing game on the CPC that com me sprite roadside detail and sheer unadulterated speed of Chase HQ.
Not only that, Chase HQ has some quite remarkable speech Every time you start a mission a male with ‘Let's go, Mr Driver or similar nonsense, while the only time the famed Nancy speaks to y b inform you you've run out of time. By the way, in the game your name is Algernon, but don't spread that around if you want to retain any credibility as a
ines the
quality
sampled
voice chips i
WELL CYBER!
Remember Mastertronic’s bril- liant budget game One Man and his Droid? That was the one where you had to guide your cybernetic sheepdog as he rounded up your robotic flock. Well in case you're still strug- gling, here are all the passwords:
Level 2 = Empire Level 3 = Predatory Level 4 = Ruminate Level 5 = Ryegrass Level 6 = Vacuum Level 7 = Vampire Level 8 = Ragout Level 9 = Chain
Level 10 = Aasvogel Level 11 = Blizzard Level 12 = Cloche Level 13 = Calendar Level 14 = Ectoplasm Level 15 = Ecology Level 16 = Ferocious Level 17 = Fetlock Level 18 = Gooseberry Level 19 = Gravitate Level 20 = Up and away
So can we assume that Chase HQ gets the thumbs-up? You bet. For driving realism, Hard Drivin’ is the one to go for, but for sheer arcade action, Chase HQ is going to take some beating
NO DISCRIMINATION?
е just received a letter from a Mr
Clive Dearing He has the
ay about 464 own 1 am sick and tired of the CPC 464
and its tiny memory holding back CPC
of Worksop.
lowing to ers
software producers. It must be obvious to everybody that the 6128 is a far superior machine.
But as a programmer myself, | сап easily understand how other program ers are reluctant to write specifically for the 6128 when they know there are so many 464s out there
Yet again, software is produced to the lo mon denominator, and
all those
eople who buy a more power ful model, only reap half the benefits.
What | suggest is this. The 464, with ts puny tape loader (no disk drive!) should be taken off the shelves. Amstrad owes it to all its 6128 buyers
ally phase out this old machine
‘Secondly, magazines like New Сот
puter Express shoul ? lead in
j take t promoting new and powerful: software Forget about the 464, it's had its day! d be actively discouraging ple from buying or supporting them Only then will the 61 share of attenti
t its rightful
ill complain that S too expensive ou want something badly you'll save up for it. That'll weed out all those dreadful ‘shooting’ games that journalists seem so fond of
ve heard enough. | really think this guy means it. What do you think — should the 464 be phased out? In the meantime, | think Il just get my tin hel met on.
Rod Lawton
Spectrum PEW
MSX
BBC
CPC
Mari 8-bit 01 Archimedes
PC
ES 0
MISSING KEYS
If some of the keys stop working, the most likely cause is a faulty keyboard membrane. Quite often, the break in the membrane is where it plugs into one of the connectors on the main printed cir- cuit board. It is worth checking for this, and, if a break is found in this position (usually where the membrane ‘tail’ has been creased), cutting off the last 5mm or so. This will often cure the problem, saving the cost of a new membrane (£5) if you fit it yourself, or a repair bill of £25 or more.
LANGUAGE TRAIN
BCPL, which stands for Basic Combined Programming Language, is in fact the precursor of C – BCPL begat B, which was transmogrified into C, via NB, for Not B! It bears no relation to BASIC, by the way.
BCPL was largely the work of one per- son – Prof. Martin Richards of the Com- puting Laboratory, Cambridge University. MetaComCo of Bristol then implemented BCPL on a number of systems and was able to port it to the QL quite quickly. In fact, it was the first high-level language to appear on the QL, apart from Super: BASIC, of course.
MetaComCo is better known for Ami gaDOS, which was based on TRIPOS. TRIPOS was written in BCPL, and also emanated from Cambridge.
Ed XE
ANOTHER COMPETITION After the super response to the last Antic's Roadshow competition, I've decided to hang the incredible expense and offer you the chance to win yet another breath-taking piece of software Last time flight simulator fans’ dreams came true - this time it's the turn of the arcade players. The prize on offer is Atari's Nucleus, the all-action shoot"em- up for one or two players which features smooth-scrolling, sexy sounds and more aliens than you can shake a stick at!
WINNING WAYS
The action of Nucleus takes place in the outer reaches of a far flung galaxy. War has been outlawed for many millions of years and so to settle disputes, oppos- ing factions must resolve quarrels in a huge combat arena situated in an unsta ble area of the galaxy where innocent bystanders are safe from harm.
You have been placed in this combat arena, and must fight for your life and those of your fellows against a computer generated opponent. Pierce the oppo- nents’ armour and inject а nuclear satel lite and you're well on the way to winning. But beware — it's not quite as easy as it sounds.
To enter the competition, simply answer the following question with an entry not later than the end of January. What substance is used to construct the semi-conducting chips inside your Atari XE? First one out of the hat in the first February issue wins.
Edmund Blake
Like C, BCPL is a compiled language, and was intended for systems program- ming; writing operating systems, utilities and compilers. BCPL is a very simple, elegant language with only one data type, the word, and only one structure, the vector, which is like a single-dimen- sional array.
It is quite feasible to develop sizeable BCPL programs on an unexpanded QL, which is not the case with most other hightevel languages. It is also a very ‘portable’ language, with implementa tions for the Beeb, PC and Archimedes.
Unfortunately, MetaComCo doesn't appear to be around any more, so you'll have to get a copy of BCPL second. hand, if you are interested.
CONSCIENCE MONEY
1 have recently spoken with Tony Tebby of QJump about software piracy. He mentioned that an individual who had pirated copies of QJump software wrote in saying that he had become a 'born again Christian’, and the anonymous gen- tleman enclosed a sum of money to salve his conscience.
Incidentally, I've just heard a rumour that Amstrad is taking an interest in the QL emulator for the Amiga. | find this just a bit strange, as a similar emulator for the Atari ST has been around for over a year now.
John Torofex
C64
HARDWARE FAILURE
What happens if the power supply goes, as some of them do seem to run at very high temperatures? Send £19.95 to Omnidale Supplies Ltd., 23 Curzon Street, Derby DE1 2ES — that's what. This fee includes post and packing, by the way.
Or if your C64 gives up the ghost, for а full repair for £25 try Midlands Com- puter Repair Services, Unit 1, The Old Dairy, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire LE13 INL. This also carries a 12-month extended warranty.
A GAME IN A POKE
If you own an Action Replay cartridge or any other that allows you to re-start a game without a SYS call, then read on. For infinite lives in all cases, we see that
Phobia requires poke „189, Last Ninja needs ‚ Road Run- ner wants you to Рок 41,36, while Commando insists that you
To have fun with Operation
Wolf, you could for infi nite time, or for infinite bombs, or for infinite cartridges, or even ‚ 165 for
infinite bullets. Thanks to Paul Brooke for that lot.
FORKED TONGUE Fed up with BASIC being a bit slow? Con- fused by the mysteries of assembly lan
guage? Why not try another language, there are plenty available for the C64. Forth seems to be the most popular alternative, with several versions out now and available. it was originally designed to control radio telescopes, and while most of you probably won't be doing that, you might enjoy program- ming with it instead. Adamsoft is the place to write to for £12.95s worth of Forth-64: 18 Norwich Avenue, Rochdale, Lancashire OL11 5JZ. Pete Gerrard
Continuing our tour of some of the more interesting backwaters of the old C64, something else for you to PEEK into and POKE around with. In one of our earlier forays, | outlined a way of simu- lating a LOCATE X, Y: PRINT ^I'M HERE!" sequence by using a cou- ple of variables. But there is another way, if we look at the two locations 211 and 214. Say we have the two co-ordinates and =14, so we want to print something 10 positions in on the 14th line down. Well, how about POKE 214, Y: POKE 211,X:PRINT HELLO THERE!” to make life a little easier for you.
ARCHI
THE NINETIES What glories are the Nineties going to hold for Archimedes and its merry band of followers? As promising as the future has always been for our machine, it is now likely that software will start to flow. | know we have to keep our ends up and maintain that there's stacks of the stuff out already, but when you take a close look at it, there are only a few worthy packages in each main category. In fact, there is an awful lot of dross on the market that only makes the grade because of the lack of competition.
RACY REDUCTIONS?
it could very well be that 1990 will see the dropping of Archimedes price levels, perhaps under pressure from Olivetti.
If this race towards the raciest reduc- tion were to occur, the dribble of soft- ware starting to exploit the undoubted power of the machine, might at last gush from the orifices of the industry.
€
* Arc: price pressure from Olivetti
EDES
WHAT IF?
it would be good to see rivals to Ist Word Plus, which is the only true Archimedes word processor – all the others are really spreadsheets, or have to run under emulators.
And as for databases — are there any serious challengers to the supremacy of Minerva's Multistor? Spreadsheets, too, come down to the selected few, namely Pipedream 3 and Logistix - both are good — but two to choose from hardly makes for adequate option.
MORE ON SCREEN Perhaps everybody does not yet know that you can change the display of file icons in a directory windows by select- ing Display from the Filer menu – click Select within a window to call this up. You can then choose Large icons, Small icons or Full info. Full info is per- haps the most useful for day to day work on the Arc. Give this a try - it could quite possibly make your comput- ing endeavours an easier road to travel. Bertrum Carrot
MAKE THE CHANGE TO ARC DISK FILING For some people coming to the Archimedes from disk-based machines
like the IBM-PC, the multitude of disk filing commands
ight prove con-
fusing. Here's a quick reference guide to help you get more out RISCOS:
RISCOS Meaning
E Select Advanced Disk Filing System *Back Swap to most recent prev directory mplete disk to another E loses ADFS session
hecks disk contents against dir
з free space on L & D disks Marks defects for avoidance *Dismount Closes open files on named disk
*Backup ies a
*CheckMap *Compact cont *Defect
*Hount *NameDisc
Prepares a disk for use
MS-DOS
No equivalent No equivalent DISKCOPY
No equivalent No equivalent Not needed
No equivalent No equivalent FORMAT
CHKDSK
No equivalent No equivalent LABEL
No equivalent Not needed
Not implemented Not. needed
Not implemented
10 • NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS • 13 JANUARY 1990
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* Single or Twin High Capacity 3.5" drives.
* 512k on-board RAM (Expandable) * Built-in Paralell & Mouse Port.
* MS-DOS 321/MS-DOS Manager * GW Basic.
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as bi-directional print and the wheels are interchangeable. Ideal for use by all the family.
OUR PRICE £109.95p
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t to change without notice. All transactions are ns of Sale, available upon request. Personal callers welcome
APOLOGISES
We're sorry! We know there were lots of
you who expected to get the SAM Coupe
in time for Christmas. Here at MGT, we
worked very hard to meet our deadlines - but we failed.
We'd always promised that we'd supply our existing customers first, and so we did, but we just couldn't build enough to get them into the shops as well.
To find out where and when to see the SAM
Coupe’ call our Customer Care department on 0792 - 791100. And for the latest SAM news, stay in touch with the hotline answerphone on 0792 - 791275.
PC 1512 Single Drive Colour
PC 1512 Double Drive Mono £449 PC 1640 Single Drive Colour £549.95 PC 1640 Double Drive Mono £499.95 PPC 512 Single Drive £359.95 PPC 512 Double Drive £449.95 AMSTRAD V21/V23 internal
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Coming in the new year. Along with Deluxe Paint Enhanced comes PC Paint- brush, the latest in the line from ZSoft, Which has also recently produced a ver. Sion for Windows.
Indeed, ZSoft has benefitted from the material support of Microsoft, because earlier versions of the Paintbrush pro- gram were bundled with the outstanding Microsoft mouse.
But ZSoft's Version IV is a much Changed beast, with full 256-colour VGA Support, graduated flood fill and the abil- ity to handle more than one image at a time, overlaying one on the other if the need arises. Screen capture is included as are grey-scale facilities for touching up monochrome images. Images can also be zoomed up and edited on a split screen display.
All this looks pretty exciting, but it's probably fair to say that for most of us the new program is better suited to edit ing existing images than to creating origi nal ones. PC Paintbrush IV is available in this country from Software Forward Ltd 0234 272474 for £99.95.
PIZAZZ TIP
If you use Pizazz Plus, the screen dump- ing utility (and you should), you may have noticed that some of your dumps come out of the printer with slight distortions of their pixels. This is probably because the ratio of screen pixel to printer pixel is not exact.
Pizazz Plus has two functions, round ир and round down, which take care of this by altering the size of the printed image to an exact multiple of the screen, both horizontally and vertically. Using
cu"
л,
Norton Computing has brought out Version 3 of The Norton Comman- der, its front end’ to MS-DOS. The Norton Commander (pictured above) is designed to provide insu- lation from the infamous clunkiness of the standard DOS prompt by
these two functions independently also allows you to change the aspect ratio of the dump, while still managing to keep the image exact.
PRINTER SWITCH MODE
You may remember a poser quoted in this column a couple of months ago. It concerned the use of applications such as GEM with a printer running through an electronic printer switch box. Under nor- mal circumstances GEM checks the printer port once. If it doesn't see a printer on the end of it, as it won't if the Switch box is scanning another port at that instant, it displays a ‘Retry’ box.
You can get round the problem by repeatedly retrying until the switch box happens to be scanning the right input, but it would be nice if there were a more elegant solution.
| thought I'd come across it the other day when | read of an obscure use of the MS-DOS MODE command. If you enter
rP, MODE installs part of itself permanently in memory (like a TSR) and will continuously retry should printing fail through a timeout error.
| installed this command in my GEM batch file with high hopes, but, alas, either GEM handles printer control itself or the error returned in the printer switch situation is not a timeout. This use of the MODE command may well be the bees knees in other situations, though, so | pass it on for your consideration.
DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO
Last week | issued a warning on the use of labels with laser printers. Don't use ordinary labels with lasers, | said, or you risk damaging your laser.
Desperate for a few last Christmas card labels and without any of the trusty laser labels to hand, | thought I'd take fate by the throat, ignore my own advice, and slip a few through my LaserJet 2.
Sure enough, one of the labels wrapped itself around the selenium drum of the printer. | managed to peel the label off the drum, but it left a good part of the gum and unused toner stuck to its dull green surface
Off | travelled to my local supplier with this tale of woe, from whom | bought a new drum and a can of anti-static foam cleaner. The good dealer, being a man of the most upstanding integrity, was at pains to disclaim all responsibility, but figuring that | had little to lose, ! removed the old drum and set about cleaning off the label residue.
WORDPERFECT BITES THE BULLET With WordPerfect 5.1, Word- perfect Corp has finally bit- ten the bullet and included a system of mouse-driven pull down menus to make life easier for novices and occa- sional users. This is a much improved product. But do not fear, operations can, of course, still be directed from the keyboard via the [ALT] key alone or the [ALT][=] combination for those who are accustomed to the old environment but set of the printer you were impressive, easy to use and find themselves faced with using. Version 5.1, however, genuinely desirable - allows the upgraded version. can print out anything it can ^ automatic construction of Macros have been show on supported printers ^ tables using the graphic box enhanced in 5.1, but again with graphics capabilities. characters. Cells can have по need to worry - 5.0 The reveal codes window, ех! and/or formulae ‘macros will work too, can be adjusted, allo inserted into them - includ- unchanged. Additionally, ing you to leave a small win- — ing the ubiquitous merge there is a conversion utility dow for viewing codes on codes for prompts. for version 4.2 macros, screen without losing much In the end then, the price Further, using the hyphen- — editing space - thereby also — for all this extra power is ation feature under 5.0 making it practical to leave Ња the program takes 4Mb. required you to buy a the reveal codes window of disk space and runs more hyphenation dictionary; this ^ continuously operational. slowly. The manual claims reference source comes WordPerfect 5.1 allows that it can be installed on free with version 5.1, mak- уои to hot link PlanPerfect, апу machine with two 720K ing the hyphenation much Lotus 1 2 3 and Excel. disk drives - well, maybe easier to use. Spreadsheets to a WordPer- — this is the case, but perhaps Printing many of the fect document. Once set up, itis overstating a little, 1,500 screen characters апу changes їп the spread- The new 5.1 is sold at a was also problematical sheet will occur in the Word- — cost of £488. For more under 5.0 because this pro- — Perfect document as well. details, phone WordPerfect cess relied on the character А new table feature - оп 0932 850500. As a laser drum is light sensitive | sat апд running a test print showed areas of
down to work in darkest room in the house, a welthidden small one with a lot of porcelain fitments.
The drum and toner cartridge on a Canonbased laser has a shutter which automatically closes over the drum to protect it from light and fingers. Fingers Should never come into contact with the drum as grease will be transferred to it damaging its charge retention.
| swung back the shutter and brought the damaged area of the drum into view by turning the helical gear at the end of the drum spindle. | then applied a film cleaner to a clean, lintfree wipe and
the drum taking no static charge. Rather than the mucky splodges left by the label gum there were now blank areas on the printed sheet. | ran off another 10 prints and things gradually improved until at the end the print quality was up to par.
The moral of this happy tale is to prac tice what you preach, but also to go ahead and have a go, particularly when you have nothing to lose.
SHAREWARE SUPPLEMENT Shareware Marketing has issued a sup. plement to its latest supplement of excel lent public domain programs- again. Yet more shareware goodies are featured in its little white pages. Ring 0297 24092 for your copy
Simon Williams
A COMMANDER, A BROWN BAG AND A QUESTION
putting to hand a series of utilities which ease all the standard operat- ing system functions.
A direct competitor to Lotus’ Magellan (reviewed in a previous issue of Express), The Norton Com- mander has been around for a while now, but Version 3 adds extra fea- tures, including Commander Mail and Comander Link - of special interest to comms users.
Indeed, PC users accustomed to Norton's better known products, Such as The Norton Utilities, may be surprised to know that The Norton Commander is not aimed at the Programmer as many earlier Nor- ton packages have been.
Rather, Commander is an end
user's tool - even if a certain amount of DOS knowledge will no doubt be advantageous.
At first glance then Norton Commander provides an excel- lent end user's environment. Indeed, it is particularly hearten- ing to see mouse support on a product of this type.
Back with the shareware world, though, you may have heard that Brown Bag Software (suppliers of the ground-breaking PC Outline, Ramtest - pictured to the right, Homebase and Min- dreader) has closed its UK office Rumours suggest a rift between the London-based staff and the Californian HQ is the cause.
Users of the company's pro- rams need not worry about being left out in the cold, however, as Steve Lee of Shareware Market- ing (phone 0297 24088) has gone ahead to snap up the UK rights to the range.
Therefore, if you want to register a Brown Bag product, or are looking for some technical Support if you already are a Brown Bag user, just get on the blower to the good people in Beer, Devon.
While we're on the subject of Brown Bag programs, is it possi- ble that the revised version of PC Outline, which was expected to arrive in users’ hands some time
12 › NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS « 13 JANUARY 1990
_ AATART ST and С: amica
c =
Sixteen Bit Superdeals from the Sixteen Bit Specialists ! CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE! When comparing prices remember ours include fast delivery by courier.
| 3€ ~ 520 STE Power Pack | 359.00 Inc. VAT and Next Day Delivery
Power Pack includes:
Жжжж ж Жжжж ж
Modulator
4096 Colour Palette
8 Channel digital stereo sound
4 Joystick Ports
Over £550 worth of games software, including OutRun, Gauntlet 2, R-Type, Space Harrier, Super HangOn and 16 more. Пр Games Organiser Business Software including WORDPROCESSOR, SPREADSHEET and DATABASE.
First BASIC and First Music Utility Software
FREE JOYSTICK AND FREE MOUSE MAT WORTH £4.95 All leads, manuals PLUS MOUSE and free mains plug!
BASIC REV D by Metacomco.
| 520STE Explorer Pack
| £279.(
| * Explorer Pack Includes 520STE 512K Keyboard with built-in 1 Медабу бї Drive and TV Modulator
| * 1 FREE Game, ST Tutorial and METACOMCO Basic worth £25.00
* All Leads, Manuals PLUS MOUSE and FREE Mains Plug! x Free mouse mat worth £4.95 |
С 1040STE Super Раск
| * Includes the new 1 megabyte 1040STE keyboard plus £450 worth of software.
Comprising 21 games and Organiser Business Software. Also includes | _ Metacomco BASIC, Mouse Pad, all Leads, Manuals and Mouse. | * 1040 STE keyboard without software £439.00
| MEGA 1 BUSINESS PACK
| `
| Features:
* Separate Keyboard and System Unit
* £385 worth of Business Software including MICROSOFT WRITE word processor (£150) SUPERBASE PERSONAL Database (£60) and VIP PROFESSIONAL Lotus 123 Spreadsheet clone (£150). Metacomco Basic (£25.00)
ж Blitter chip installed for faster graphics
Inc SM124 Mono Monitor.
£628.00
Branded Memorex 3.5" DS DD Disks
Quickshot II Turbo Joystick... „£9.95
520 STE 512K Keyboard with Built-in 1 Megabyte disk drive and TV
REMEMBER! Many ST's do not come with BASIC - ours come with ST
| Competition Pro 5000 Joystick ....£13.95 „£13.95 Competition Pro with Autofire ......£14.95 Konix Speedking Joystick ... £11.95 For 403.5" Disks £8.95 Red Mouse Mat with Amiga logo...£5.95 ^ Amiga 1/2 Meg Expansion.........£119.95
Plain blue Mouse Mat.................£4.95 | Contriver Amiga and ST Mouse with FREE Holder and Mouse Pad £20.95
| Star LC24-10 24 pin incl. lead ST/Amiga .... Star LC10 including interface lead for СЗЯ Star LC10 colour including interface lead for ST/Amiga £219.00 Citizen 1200 including interface lead for ST/Amiga ... £159.00 SEIKOSHA 80 COLUMN PRINTERS - AMAZING PRICES Seikosha 9 pin NLQ including interface lead for ST/Amiga. | Seikosha 24 pin LQ including interface lead for ST/Amiga .
-..£249.00 £169.00
Control Centre Atari or Amiga......£39.95
| Я АМІСА А500 | GAMES PACK
Inc VAT and Next Day Delivery
BAT Games Pack includes: | ж Amiga A500 512K Keyboard with Built-in 1 Megabyte disk drive. * Free TV modulator worth £24.99 allowing you to use the Amiga with. a normal TV. ж DELUXE PAINT II and PHOTON PAINT Graphic Packages WORTH over £100! * FREE, only-just-released BATMAN - THE MOVIE games software. * NEW ZEALAND STORY arcade games software. | * F16 - INTERCEPTOR - amazing 3D flight simulator software. * A further £230 worth of Games Software, including BUGGY BOY, MERCENARY, BARBARIAN, WIZBALL & six more games. | * FREE MOUSE MAT worth £4.95 | * Amiga BASIC, Amiga EXTRAS 1.3, Workbench 1.3 PLUS the Amiga Step by Step Tutorial. | ж All leads, manuals PLUS MOUSE and mains plug!
— AMIGA 1MEG - BAT GAME PACK
1 Meg Bat Games Pack includes: ж Fitted 1 Megabyte Memory Expansion + Real Time Clock Card * Everything listed for the A500 Bat Game Pack
* DRAGON'S LAIR 1 MEG MEGAGAME!
AMIGA A500 CLASS OF THE 1990'S
BUSINESS + EDUCATIONAL PACK ||
ҒЕАТЏВЕЅ:
ж Amiga А500 + TV Modulator | ж Midi Interface + Software ж Кіпа Words II word processor * Page Setter DTP * Mouse mat, 10 blank disks * Super Base Personal and disk wallet | Database |
* Maxiplan 500 Spreadsheet * Amiga Logo, BBC Emulator, Deluxe Paint II
Atari SF314 1 Megabyte.. Amiga A1010 1 Megabyt Cumana 1 Megabyte Atari or Amiga NEC 1 Megabyte Atari or Amiga . Atari Megafile 30 Hard Disk... New! Commodore A590 20 meg hard disk. A590 Hard Disk + Memory Upgrade installed
MONITCRS Commodore Amiga A1084 Stereo colour Monitor inc lead Atari SC1224 Colour Monitor inc lead.. Atari SM124 Mono Monitor including lead.
| Philips CM8833 stereo colour monitor inc. lead for ST or Amig;
|
CREDIT CARD ORDERLINE = 0908 379700 ) (Mon - Sat 9am - 6pm) order either call the orderline above with your Credit Card details OR make Digicom Computer Services and send it with your order to the address below. Callers are also most welcome at the address below
DIGICOM
Unit 36, Wharfside, Fenny Stratford, MILTON KEYNES MK2 2AZ All prices include VAT and delivery by courier
a cheque or P. to
YOUR FORMAT
MACHINE SPECIFIC COLUMN
THE HOUNDS' CHARGE
It appears Electronic Arts is having prob- lems with Hound of Shadow and has had to withdraw all ST copies. From what I've heard, there's a bug that causes the pro- gram to crash after a few minutes' worth of play.
Also, | have been told by observant readers who've returned their copies for replacements that the game is still on sale in the shops. This is a temporary problem — no doubt — but it's a pity, nonetheless, that such an excellent game should have run into difficulty.
IT'S IMAGIC
From Signa, and associated with the mighty Calamus, comes the rather splen- did German program Imagic, with which you can create desktop video, anima- tions, presentations, slide shows and a whole lot more.
Imagic is indeed an astonishing pack- age - a superbly designed mouse-driven environment that gives easy access to advanced functions. It also includes Denise, a program that enables you to create and import picture files and link them into a presentation using various fades and graphic effects.
And there is а complete and rather wonderful builtin paint program that works in any resolution. Only trouble is that Imagic is not cheap – it costs £150, а hefty sum with which to experiment.
DON'T DESPAIR However, there is a Public Domain demo version of Imagic issued by Signa with
comment to point out
Children bety
that Kidpubl isher Professional is rather more Kidpublisher than Professional, Nevertheless, it makes an ideal introduction to the principles of DTP for young
the save option disabled. Ви, unfortunately, the README file remains firmly untranslated from the German. So, if you're not bilingual...
Don't despair, though! The ever-ambi- tious South West Software Library has recently released а version with an English README file, “With a program like this,” SWSL’s Martyn Dryden points Out, “you really need some assistance. Without help, you might be impressed, but you would be unlikely to access the demo animations included on the disk, let alone try out the builtin paint program or the animation features.”
In truth, Martyn's README is not as complete as the README file on the orig- inal Imagic, but it is set up to allow use of the main features of the package – and it does seem the most worthy alter- native to date.
In summary then, the public domain demo version of Imagic – which requires а 1040 or more to run ~ is available for £3 from The South West Software Library, PO Box 562, Wimbourne, Dorset BH21 2YD. Tell 'em Express sent you.
THE EDITOR STRIKES BACK Edward Penman, author of the Dungeon Master Editor distributed by Software Express, is currently putting the final touches to an editor for the sequel, Chaos Strikes Back. “The new game is a good deal tougher than Dungeon Mas- ler," he opines, “with a very tricky sys- tem that frequently drops you into other levels without telling you, You're really going to need the editor – | tell you!”
OK Penman, that’s enough hype. Not that his product needs it: apparently, the Dungeon Master Editor is about to pass its 10,000th sale — a remarkable total, and considerably more than many games manage at that. So we will see what we will see about the sequel.
йз
ROW LORD
UBI SOFT * £24.95 UBI Soft has been talking about Iron Lord for the last three years and in that time we've come to anticipate it as if it would be something of a programming miracle, Early demos revealed much of the graphical action * Iron Lord: addictive and challenging sequences, but the game has been hyped consistently clues or who join your army. each side moving six troops as an adventure. So how ‘And along the way you in alternation. does it succeed now that it is encounter action sequences Win here and you're finally here? such as an archery game through to the labyrinth, The aim of Iron Lordisto апда gambling hall. The where you must find the exit assemble an army so you larger the army you find, the {о six levels of the maze, can battle against your evil greater your chances, which in themselves are uncle. Riding your character You then lead your army ^ absolutely littered with around on a horse, you into the final battle, where excellent arcade-style shoot- select direction from a map, you must fight up the map ‘em-up sequences, Choosing to visit abbeys, from the bottom of the їп summary, brilliant castles or villages. screen at an army coming graphics go without saying, Exploring these various down from the north. This is Би Iron Lord also has last- and sundry locations, you а strategy element, played ing appeal, It's a wonder: meet people who give you against the computer with challenging and addictive,
MORE CHAOS Incidentally, I've had a call from a some- what disconcerted Pete Davies of Dork. ing, who was lucky enough to find Chaos Strikes Back in a Virgin megastore just before Christmas. So why is he not jump- ing for joy?
Well, he takes understandable excep- tion to the fact that the packaging has on
EIR OWN!
it that he needs to have Dungeon Master to use Chaos Strikes Back — which is patently untrue. Heaven knows what Mir- rorsoft was thinking of: | can only express the fervent wish that the offend- ing packaging is changed immediately.
PIRACY BAN BITES
‘Well, it's not harming anyone, is it? That's the usual argument used by those staunch few defenders of piracy. Until now it has been difficult to counter that claim, except to suggest in general terms that software prices have to take piracy into account
Now there's some very tangible proof that piracy does harm ST users. NextBase, the people who gave the world the rather wonderful Autoroute, decided before Christmas to try an unusual experiment and lop a whacking great £100 off the £150 price.
A bold move, and one which backfired badly. For so extensive is the piracy among ST users, claims NextBase, that it won't be trying anything like this again.
Indeed, the PC and some other for- mats wil be getting enhanced and upgraded versions of Autoroute during 1990, and the ST won't. "We have no alternative,” | was told, “but to consider the ST a dead market for us.”
Next time a moron boasts to you about how many stolen software items he has in his collection, hit him for me — or if not for me for the good of the industry.
Steve Carey
14 « NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 13 JANUARY 1990
ROUTEWISE®
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NEWTEK UPDATE
It’s always nice when something that you predict comes true. And regular readers of Express may remember a recent news item regarding the release of NewTek's Digi-View Gold 4. This update is special bec Ne has finally cracked the 4,096 colours in highresolu tion mode problem - NewTek called it 'Dynamic HiRes'
The good reader v remember hat as Gold 4 was announced, | predicted that NewTek would upgrade the DigiPaint sys- tem to take advantage of the new mode Indeed, | recently phoned NewTek in the States to uncover more information After an initial reaction of astonishment ‘How did you find out about that? — NewTek confirmed that an upgraded ver sion is being worked on. Alas, | could glean no further specifics.
Meanwhile, the PAL version of Digi View 4 started shipping on December | 27, presumably making it available in | Britain by the time you read this. Addi tionally, for those of you who already own DigiView, DigiView 4 is a software based enhancement and, therefore. upgrading will be a relatively cheap pro- | cess. NewT arges American users $24.95 for the new program.
I no doubt also soon as DigiView
HISOFT IN THE '90s
After a relatively quiet time, HiSoft has announced plans for the coming year. The good news is that the company intends to upgrade versions of the cur. rent catalogue in addition to floating the | release of many new products.
(SIT HIE Ter Um —
* HiSoft BASIC - due for an upgrade
Now that Dev | been offered, HiSoft is beavering away | on a major upgrade to the successful Devpac 2 assembler system. According to David Link of HiSoft, Devpac to be called) will include many of the new features found in Devpac Professi well as considerably increased perfor mance. The bad news is that Devpac 3 is still quite a way off — so don't hold your breath | Тһе incredibly popular – so - HiSoft BASIC is also du upgrade within 1990. The foremost addi
tion will be complete compatibility with Quick BASIC 4 on the PC, although other amendments are planned.
Also due for release within the next couple of weeks is HiSoft’s Extend library for the existing version of HiSoft BASIC Extend is a disk-based library that con- tains several routines for such tasks as loading and saving IFF files, using file requesters and so on
Where new products are concerned, HiSoft has the Amiga version of the ST C interpreter due 'within the later part of 1990'. The product has been in the pipeline for a few months now, despite the continuing eager anticipation of Amiga programmers. And usually soft ware-starved Pascal programmers will be pleased to hear that the world hasn't f gotten them – HiSoft also has a Pascal compiler planned for rele:
Most of the products mentioned are still some way off, so don't rush down to your local software stockist and demand your copy now, as he probably won't have a clue what you're on about. Should you require any preliminary details, how. ever, contact HiSoft on 0525 718181
GFA COMPILER IMMINENT
Yes, GFA owners, you haven't got long to wait now — the GFA BASIC compiler will be with you in a matter of days. | recently spoke to Les Player of GFA, who assured me that the unit would be ready for release early in January.
With the GFA compiler update, GFA BASIC has finally matured into a serious development system. How much for th gem? Well folks, you won't have to starve to be able to af ing price – as the GFA Compiler will set you back a раі try £29.95.
Even though we have finally recieved the compiler for GFA BASIC 3,041, the news is that this will soon be out of date, as GFA BASIC is to be upgraded to ver. sion 3.5 later this year. The new versio includes 50 additional commands inc ing complex matrix functions. Contact GFA on 0734 794941
rd the a:
SNIPPETS. Musicians on the bread line will be pleased to hear that Microlllusions has
leased the си ion of the number one MIDI sequencer system, which w
finally rel
uch a hit with musi n pat ailable from 96497
ge costs
THE RIGHT CROSS
DOS-2-DOS, of the most Amiga prograr ne, has finally been toppl n as the ul mate file trar with the relea DOS fro г Computit Unlike DOS-2
any Amig
the background and all
program ti under Exec to
read and w to AmigaDOS, MS
DOS and ri ST), and format
floppies g standard Amiga drives. By t referri an Amiga drive using
either DFn: or A:, any applicatio me drive to read and plethora of
ontacted on
for next
SEVEN GATES OF JAMBALA
16 « NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS •
AN 3 JANUARY
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over £20 from a participating advertiser in New Computer Express. You #10 from a participating advertiser in New Computer Express. You simply 1.Express vouchers can be used to obtain | simply fill in the details below and send it off with your order. [| fil in the details below and send it off with your order. discounts on purchases of goods advertised NAME . A = [| МАМЕ _ — Р. z in this issue of New Computer Express, provided that they are bought directly from ADDRESS = ADDRESS >< 2 En. TEL I TEL an advertiser taking part in the scheme. The І PA E E т TAS E I vouchers are valid only for those advertise- | ITEM PURCHASED = | ПЕМ PURCHASED — ——— I ments which say “We accept Express One voucher per order only. Voucher and order must reach the advertiser | One voucher per order only. Voucher and order must reach the advertiser В vouchers before 9am Monday January 29th 1990 before 9am Monday January 29th 1990 2. Each voucher entitles you to a discount at пан ша шыш шш шш шш шш шш ша шш шш шы + ши ши e e eee н the voucher's face value, provided that your £6 voucher. Valid for orders over £120 , £3 voucher. Valid for orders over £60 overall order level is higher than the figure This voucher may be used as £6.00 part payment on any order totaling This voucher may be used as £3.00 part payment on any order totaling indicated on the back of the voucher. 1 over £120 from а participating advertiser in New Computer Express. You over £60 from a participating advertiser in New Computer Express. You 3. To use a voucher, simply enclose it with simply fil in the details below and send it off with your order. I simply fil in the details below and send it off with your order. your discounted payment when you order. You і МАМЕ J МАМЕ I may use only one voucher in any one order. 4. The order including the voucher must be ADDRESS ADDRESS l TEL І TE. I received by the advertiser before the closing А, t date printed on the voucher. | iem PuRcHASED I ТЕМ PURCHASED [ 5 You must fitin the details on the l One voucher per order only. Voucher and order must reach advertiser Ш One voucher per order only. Voucher and order must reach the advertiser l E before 9am Monday January 29th 1990 before Sam Monday January 29th 1990
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THE SHOPPING EXPRESS BUYER'S GUIDE TO
60 TOP GAMES
After you've done the day's database work or finally finished that wordy WP article, and you're looking for some fun, then the choice of games for your machine is enormous. Whether it's mind- less violence or nail-biting strategy there's a whole world out there just waiting to be booted. This week, Express brings you the definitive guide to the top games on your machine to suit all tastes.
ST GAMES
The Atari ST remains the most popular of the 16-bit micros, and virtually all games are released with an ST version.
@ CARRIER COMMAND
Rainbird 0666 504326
£24,99
Compelling strategic shoot-em-up with
you in charge of a 200mph aircraft car-
rier of the future attempting to take con-
trol of a vast volcanic archipelago. Fly
jets and drive amphibious vehicles simul-
taneously while colonising the territory
and supplies of the enemy
€ STARGLIDER 2
Rainbird 0666 504326
£24.99
Solid 3D extravaganza which can be played either as shoot"em-up or strategy with you looking for the parts to build a neutron bomb as you fly around an alien system encouñtering all manner of alien life. Features some of the best filled vec- tor animation оп апу home micro.
© KICK OFF
Anco 0322 92513
£19.99
Excellent soccer-sim with furious, well-
rad ball control putting it in a class of its |
own. Play against a friend or the com- puter in five levels of competence pre- sented with opportunities to compete in The World Cup and practice the skills needed to beat all comers.
€ DUNGEON MASTER Mirrorsoft 01-928 1454 £24.99
Arguably the best graphic adventure to |
have appeared on any machine, Dun- geon Master takes you into a cata- combed world of adventure and peril Fourteen levels of surprise and puzzles with only four companions to help you survive.
€ XENON 2
Imageworks 01-928 1454
£24.99
Much hyped but nevertheless superb Shoot'emup with the accent firmly on attack. Six levels of mutant aliens just dying to get taken out with you at the
|
controls of a modular spacecraft with |
almost enough weaponry to drown out the sound of the Bomb The Bass sound- track
€ FALCON
Mirrorsoft 01-928 1454
£19.99
Superior F-16 flight sim, now with an
additional mission disk, featuring multi- |
viewpoint combat tasks with smooth graphics and superb control. Perhaps not a stickler for realism but immensely playable and nevertheless convincing
@ PURPLE SATURN DAY
Infogrammes 01-364 0123
£19.99
Five in one strategic shoot'em-up from
the same stable as Captain Blood and
exhibiting all the same French polish in
the graphics and audio departments.
Each of the five-games would be worth
almost twenty quid in their own right.
€ VIRUS
Firebird 0666 504326
£19.99
First solid 3D game to really harness the power of the 68000 — smooth, fast scrolling shoot'em-up with brilliant graph- ics in which you guide a hoverplane over a archipelago world being infested with pestilence by a variety of alien craft.
€ BALANCE OF POWER
Mindscape 0444 86545
£24.99
Challenge your ST, or a friend, to global
domination in the ultimate ST strategy
game. A fascinating insight into geopoli-
tics with you playing either the USA or
USSR in a five year span of policy-mak-
ing as you attempt to defeat your oppo-
nent without causing Armageddon.
© POPULOUS
Electronic Arts 0753 46465
£24.99
Unique microcosm of a variety of worlds in which you play God. You create the conditions for your minions to breed and colonise a staggering 999 worlds before your human or computer opponent does the same. Recently complemented by an additional disk of new worlds.
AMIGA GAMES
The Commodore Amiga is now recognised as the premier games machine, with truly addic- tive and visually stunning games abounding.
© F-18 INTERCEPTOR ELECTRONIC ARTS 0753 46465
£24.95
This multi-view solid 3D combat simula- tor took Amiga owners by storm when it was first released in June 1988. The frame has still to be surpassed and we bet there are still players out her waiting to complete it from day one. Featuring devious missions, superbly animated graphics and stereo sound, it still remains the best flight sim on ANY machine,
@ SUPER HANG ON ELECTRIC DREAMS 0734 31666
£24.99
With brilliant stereo SFX and frantic rac- ing action, this racing bike sim positively roars through the opposition - two or four wheeled. Impressive scenery on every stage and perfect pacing make for all the ingredients you're ever likely to need – that and excellent control
€ PURPLE SATURN DAY
INFOGRAMMES
£19.99
Excellent fiveinone multiformat game
that combines shootem-up fanatics with
strategic gameplay. Featuring all the hall-
marks of French graphics and sound
we've come to expect from Info-
grammes - the animations are well
above average.
€ VIRUS
Firebird 0666 504326
£19.99
First solid 3D game to really harness the power of the 68000 - smooth, fast scrolling shoot-em-up with brilliant graph- ics in which you guide a hoverplane over a archipelago world being infested with pestilence by a variety of alien craft
@ DENARIS
RAINBOW ARTS 0260 299401
£19.99
The perfect horizontal scroller, with furi-
ous blastability on every level ensuring major destruction of everything that moves. But beneath the ordinary sce nario lies a real deviance in gameplay — some of the most engrossing encounters youre ever likely to experience with Super-smart aliens that can only be described as complete b* st* *d*
€ KICK OFF
ANCO 0322 92513
£19.99
Undoubted world cup alkstars in the footie sim stakes, Kick Off's radical ball artists beat the opposition hands down. Playing against the computer or a friend, it's possibly the most addictive game this side of Tetris. K.Os a knock out, featur- ing league matches across five levels of Skill plus a training mode to practice against 8 international sides.
€ POPULOUS
ELECTRONIC ARTS 0753 46465
£24.95
Play God for once in your life and take on the Devil in a divinely strategic quest for microcosmic conquest. Build up your people's resources, foster their develop. ment and birth rate and colonisel. In the meantime throw a few volcanoes, earth- quakes and plagues in your opponent's lap as you battle it out across 999 worlds:
€ XENON 2
IMAGE WORKS 01-928 1454
£24.99
Not bad on the ST but a true tour de force on the Amiga with great Bomb the Bass sampling and overkill weaponry as
| you work your way through five laser lev-
els on your way to ridiculously resistant end- of evel guardians, Kill and collect endless energy to buy fatal firepower
€ BALANCE OF POWER 1990
MINDSCAPE 0444 86545
£24.99
Brilliant geopolitical strategy where you
take the side of a superpower and in five
years attempt to change the course of
history. Watch with glee as you send divi-
sion after division of elite Soviet troops
into Nicaragua to take out the Contras
and hold your breath as you wait for the
result of an decision — Armageddon
2 SHOPPING EXPRESS
Commodore AMIGA/ATARI/
ГЛВМ software
The Tipster £29.95 Га]
Price includes VAT & delivery
THE TIPSTER is a horse racing program which will give you the information needed to pick HORSES not ZEBRAS.
THE TIPSTER stores horse and race info on a DATABASE to provide a quick and easy method of reviewing a race.
TAM Marke 7GD UNITS Marsh Barton Trading Estate Exeter
DEVON
ng (S/West)
C The ST Club Newsletter - £8 for 12 issues or 80p for a sample сору.
О Disk Mags - Newsletter subscription plus a disk full of the best PDsoftware with every other issue - £22.50
C Public Domain Software - Our current catalogue details over 1,300 disks. Same day despatch on all orders and belp available on using PD software.
О кош Plus 2 - The ultimate font utility for the ST. Version 2 includes a bost of new features - write/'phone for our information sheets on Fontkit Plus 2 and accompanying fonts disks. Cost - £14.95, or upgrade for £6.95 by returning your original Fontkit disk (s).
О Key Master - The keystroke recorder - allows up to 26 sets of 100 characters to be re-typed automatically. Price, with printed manual, £6.95.
О Virus Killer - The lastest version of Richard Karsmakers excellent Virus Killer. Published by CRL at £9.95 - available from us at just £6.95!
О Your Second Manual - new version due soon .
О Books, Budgie UK games, ST accessories, Laser Printing Service and commercial software - wide range available at discount prices to members.
The ST Club - 49 Stoney Street - Nottingham NGI ILX - (0602) 410241
Callers welcome Moa - Fri: 9.30 - 5.00 - No surcharges on European orders -
The ST Club
€ DUNGEON MASTER Mirrorsoft 01-928 1454
£24.99
Arguably the best graphic adventure to have appeared on any machine, Dun- geon Master takes you into a catacombed world of adventure and peril. Fourteen levels of surprise and puzzles with only four companions to help you survive. Unfortunately only available for users with Imeg of RAM
PC GAMES
@ BALANCE OF POWER
Mindscape 0444 86545
£24.99
Challenge your ST, or a friend, to global
domination in the ultimate ST
strategy game. A fascinating insight into
geoploitica with you playing either the
USA or USSR in a five year span of pol-
icymaking as you attempt to defeat
your opponent without causing
Armageddon.
€ F-19 STEALTH FIGHTER
MICROPROSE 0666 504326
£39.95
From CGA to VGA you can fly the dark-
est bird of the air in this excellent flight
sim that takes you on missions over
Libya and other hotspots on various
combat missions. With multiviews and
impressive animation, F-19 stands out
as the top playable PC sim.
€ 688 ATTACK SUB ELECTRONIC ARTS 0753 46465
£29.99
A sub sim featuring superb graphics and gameplay as you take on the ruskies in North Pole shenanigans right upto VGA ocean clarity. Since sub- mariners and computer buffs might share a lot in common, the atmosphere should suit all comers down to the ground – or should that be bed
€ WATERLOO
MIRRORSOFT 01-928 1454
£ 24.99
Borodino's author turns out another tac. tical tour de force with this adaptation of the Napoleon's last stand — but was it? A terrific and easy to use wargame that could have you rewriting history if only you weren't playing silicon opposi tion. Alarmingly addictive B
© SENTINEL
FIREBIRD 0666 504326
£24.99
A totally original game. concept which after ten years of computer gaming is a rare enough event in itself. Sentinel pits your wits in thousands of undulated solid 3D chequer board worlds against a random host of energy draining sen- tinels who you must consume to survive
€ FLIGHT SIMULATOR 3 MICROSOFT 0734 500741 £52 The Microsoft classic still retain all the hallmark of a true flight sim, with stu- dious attention paid to every last detail and lots of extra options. In VGA the true realism has to be seen to be believed. 'For serious airborne buffs only.
| € TETRIS MIRRORSOFT 01-928 1454 £19.95 THE most addictive computer game EVER. Combining fast reactions, quick thinking and relentless tactical position- ing, Tetris puts you firmly in the middle of a major dilemma — how can you pos- sibly switch it off? It's all very simple — manoeuvre falling blocks into spaces to complete lines which will disappear and give you more time to position the next randomly irregular falling block. Simple. You bet!
€ INFOCOM ADVENTURES INFOCOM 0734 311666 £24.99 TO £34.99 A series of games which at one time represented a new force in fiction but of late seem to have subsided in an avalanche of arcade action. Neverthe- less, Infocom's text adventures remain the most impressive interactive outings, ranging from horror to scifi to not so plain old fantasy -well worth checking out -especially Lurking Horror and Wish- bringer.
@ ULTIMA V
MICROPROSE 0666 504326
£29.95
Still the ultimate role playing game, offering 200 different characters to choose from. And you'll probably need them in a vast excursion that'll have you pondering for years as you try to solve this massive adventure featuring thirty separate towns and their populations, eight dungeons and of course, a fatal sprinkling of that ole black magic
ARCHIMEDES
€ ZARCH
£19.95
Superior 0532 459453
The original game for the Arc which really showed off its power. You control a flyer with the-', suse and must prevent the landscape from being infected by aliens.
€ CONQUEROR
£19.95
Superior 0532 459453
A sort of 32-bit Battlezone, set in the same stunning 3D landscape as Zarch.
COMMODORE 64.
The Commodore 64 along with the Spectrum. was one of the foremost games machines during the boom years of home computing. Even today, it still enjoys tremendous popu- larity and new software releases.
€ URIDIUM
£9.99
Hewson 0235 832939
One of the best horizontal bi-direction- ally scrolling shoot-em-ups available for the Commodore 64, the game featured incredibly smooth scrolling and breath- taking bass relief landscaping using black and white and three grey shades. Uridium is a yardstick by which others
| of the genre are measured.
BEST PRICES! |
"1 have never dealt with a better mail order company!” - К.М. Leeds
(0) MANNESMANN
MANNESMANN TALLY MT81PRINTER
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АП Star prices include VAT, рагтайе! lead, delivery and 12 Months On Site Warranty
pie ae ied a c reed Dot Matrix Printer X 130 ора draft Paper Parking ‘Star LC10 Mono £169.00 ^ ж 26 cps NLQ X роот Star LC1 Colour. £219.95 MAT Ж 1 YEAR ON SITE WARRANTY EBEE * Star LC24/10 £259.95 x P se ST Ar е M
‘Star FRIO £384.95 ` XPrice includes vi Star РНБ £499.95 X Limited Offer
Colour Upgrade FR Range £34.95 £99. 99
£129.95
INC VAT AND DELIVERY * Replacement Ribbons - £3.95 each inc
SUPERCALC 4 (IBM PC UK Version) * Award Winning Si * Also with Macro * Also wit
cust oe gii
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AKHTER MDM2400 MODEM сако (Identical to Amstrad 2400 Modem сага!)
PC meae * Auto Answer / Auto Dial * Plug straight into PC * Pulse or Tone Dialing * Full instructions
g der учын: on
апа Borodino Power Pack = 23 great software titles
5М124 Mono Monitor £99.99 Megafile 30 Hard Disk £429.95
PORTFOLIO
Mirror П. Comms sware ERE Coss Dev
Ф 13925 @ GAMES...
ST AMIGA
CHASE HQ 12.99 15.99
GHOSTBUSTERS! 15.99 15.99
MOONWALKER 12.99 15.99
KENNY DALGLISH 13.99 13.99
POWER DRIFT 16.99 16.99 dnte & are all supplied with CHAMBERS/SHAOLIN 12.99 15.99
STRIDER 13.99 16.99 n. 25" bulk disks FIGHTING SOCCER МА 16.99 [eet pie ALTERED BEAST 13.99 16.99 Quantity x 30 19.38 UNTOUCHABLES 13.99 16.99 [oer nthe! и
Quantity x 100 £27.95 i £54.95
OP THUNDERBOLT МА 16.99
GAZZA SUPER SOCCER15.99 15.99 GHOULS N GHOSTS 13.99 16.99 TURBO OUTRUN 13.99 16.99
ALL GAMES IN STOCK NOW!
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(DEPT МСЕ), UNIT A, GRAFTON PLACE, WORTHING, WEST SUSSEX. BN11 тох
[0903] 700714 ==
CAN PLACE Y! ORDER 24 HOURS A DAY
Ай prices include VAT and delivery unless otherwise slated. Goods despatched same day whenever possible. All prices are subject to change without notice. BEST PRICES only supply original equipment and no! grey imports. All of our equipment is fully guaranteed. We siock all types of computer hardware and software – give us а call for our BEST PRICES.
Mail order only, callers and collections only by prior arrangement with us. Thank You.
NEXT DAY A.M. DELIVERY BY RED STAR DOOR TO DOOR. ADD £5.00 INC VAT FOR ALL ORDERS OVER £100.00 INC VAT ADO £7.50 INC VAT FOR ALL ORDERS UNDER £100.00 INC VAT
Steinberg Pro 24 Verili Virtuoso
Hybrid Arts EZ Track Plus
Dr.T KCS 17МРЕ
ali other top packages available.
2 SHOPPING EXPRESS
Fantastic Pack
refelrfreTreTre]relrelrelrel rel rere reTrelrelrelrelrelrelrerelrelrelrelrelfel rele
A.D.S MAIL ORDER
78 Marsh Lane, Mill Hill, London. NW7 4NX Tel: 01 - 906 - 3572
PHONE LINES MANNED TILL 10PM EVERY DAY INC. SUNDAYS
ee er oe
C64C Light A500 Bat Pack
£362.00...
A500 Class Of The 90's Pack
£147.00 £515.00
Amiga Bat Pack + Software Pack + Joystick
Five explosive games and a joystick all for
£385... ONLY WHILE STOCKS LAST
€ IMPOSSIBLE MISSION
£9.99
Epyx 0734 313966
Fun and highly addictive strategy/adven-
ture game involving you as a secret
agent trying to stop scientists from tak- |
ing over the world. In order to archive
| that aim you must cavort hither and
thither on the various floors of a skyscraper, searching rooms, and the | furniture contains therein to locate clues | as to the whereabouts of the aforemen- | tioned scientists
€ ELITE
£14.99
Firebird 0666 504326
Probably the most wellknown game of all time, Elite is a space trading, strat- egy game with elements of adventure
rejoice under the names Head and Heels. Cavorting around a highly colour- ful isometric playfield you must solve many puzzles by getting head to sit on top of heels. A novel plot, with lots of tricks and traps make the game very enjoyable.
@ ELITE
£14.99
Firebird 0666 504326
The alltime trading, adventure and shootem-up game which places you in the role of a novice trader who must tra- verse the vast reaches of the Universe generating wealth by selling goods to planets in need. You can trade in legal or illegal items such as guns, drugs etc., or you can become a pirate and steal the wealth of other traders. Very addictive, colourful and playable.
and shoot-em-up which manages to sus tain the interest of players over many
Commodore 1084 Monit
Philips CM8833 Monitor hours, Bépinig 25 2 noce space. | ©, MERCENARY Star LC10 Mono Printer 7160.00 trader with a small amount of money, | Novagen 021 449 9516
you must claw your way to the top by trading guns, drugs and other contra- band commodities with various planets.
Star LC10 Colour... Star LC24-10 Printer £235.00 Seikosha SP180AL Printer £160.00 (Sheet Feeders & other accessories available)
£205.00 Travelling through space you ship devel- ops a fault with the guidance system
| and you crash land on the nearest
Any Amiga Packs can be made up at the Best Prices
E al [5)
ATARI 520 ST Power Pack £340.00
520 ST Explorer Pack
Де If you do not see what you require then please phone us on our 24HR Credit Card Hotline. We will try to Beat Any Prices Quoted Anywhere Else. Prices include V.A.T. and Courier. Any software listed Elsewhere is available from us at THE BEST PRICES! A.D.S - Dealers in Computers, Telephone Systems, Fax - Machines and Mobile Communications. ST Mega 1 Business | We seli everything that is computer Pack related. If you are looking for ас anything, leave a message as to £510.00 what it is and how much you would
£265.00
expect to pay! We will aim to find it.
clfc rearea referre rearea ferae
JOHN RUSSELL & CO
VALUERS & AUCTIONEERS
FORTHCOMING AUCTIONS
of computer hardware & electronic equipment
Saturday 20th January 1990 Canons Leisure Centre, Madeira Road, Mitcham, Surrey. 12.00 lots of microcomputers & peripherals inc IBM & Compatible systems - IBM P/S 2 30,50,60 & 80 systems
Compaq 286 & 386, Deskpro & portable systems, Apple Mac Plus & SE systems, Laserwriters & other laser printers
Future Sale Dates:
Saturday 17th February 1990 Dacorum College, Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
Viewing & Testing 9.00am/Sales Start 10.30am For further details and catalogue please contact:
01-681 5413
Selsdon House, 34 Selsdon Rd, South Croydon, Surrey CR2 6PB
SPECIALISING INCOMPUTER HARDWARE & COMMERCIAL EQUIPMENT
| team of-highly trained crack comman- |
You can also take to piracy in order to swell the coffers. The epithet classic might have been invented for this game.
@ SHADOW FIRE
£9.99
Beyond 061 224 5150
Addictive strategy game involving a
does controlled by you who beam aboard a space ship and attempt to take it over and rid it of an evil infesta- | tion. The game is played via a plan view of the space sip and features smooth
scrolling and colourful graphics.
€ BOULDERDASH
£9.99
Statesoft n/a (you may be able to find a sec- ond hand copy)
Taking control of a cute little ant labour- | ing under the name Rockford you must | rush around inside dangerous caverns collecting diamonds and other goodies while avoiding falling boulders. A simple | plot but highly addictive. |
SINCLAIR SPECTRUM
From the very beginning the newly created home computer market latched on to the Sinclair Spectrum as the ultimate games machine and little has changed in the six years since its launch. Today, new games still find their way to the market and it looks like there's several years of life in the old dog yet.
@ WHEN TIME STOOD | STILL £9.99 Ocean 061 832 6633 Strategy and adventure combined to create a highly addictive, supremely playable game involving the control of a team of four characters. Your task is to wipe out the opposing enemy forces or win them over to your side. There are | numerous physical puzzles such as bridges to cross, doors to open etc., an. the whole game is made special by the use of a smooth scrolling isometric play- field.
€ HEAD OVER HEELS £9.99
Ocean 061 832 6633 You take control of two characters who |
| plexes to
planet, Targ. You quickly discover that the planet is inhabited by two warring
| factions the Palyars and Mechanoids. To
escape from Targ you must befriend one race or the other in order to get the equipment necessary to repair you ship. Featuring fast, smooth scrolling 3D flight simulation, shooting, maiming and killing and lots of underground com- explore, the game is deservedly popular.
€ LORDS OF MIDNIGHT Strategy and adventure game involving you controlling four characters trying to solve puzzles, collect treasure and raise armies in order to fight the enemy. Lords of Midnight features interesting playfields with the possibility of eight dif ferent views and the difficult challenge of keeping track of your characters
AMSTRAD CPC464/664/6128
Arriving on the home computer scene a little later than the Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum, the CPC range of machines quickly became popular due to their superior construction, bundled monitor and software availability.
Ф TARGET RENEGADE
| £14.99
Ocean 061 832 6633
Highly colourful and addictive game which places you in the roll of a vigilante out to avenge the death of your brother Matt, killed while investigating the nefari- ‘ous doings of Mr. Big. You must employ everyday items to kill the gang mem- bers which you encounter on each level until eventually tracking down Mr. Big.
@ GAUNTLET £9.99
US Gold 021 625 3388
Extremely popular arcade game con- verted to most formats including the CPC range featuring four separate char- acters (wizard, strong-man etc.,) rushing hither and thither around an enormous smooth-scrolling colourful playfield in an attempt to locate treasure and kill bad guys. Fun to play and addictive.
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Many other titles ir in л stock. All titles are tried and tested for gameplay.
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Amiga A500 Computer.. Midi Master Interface TV Modulator
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520 STE EXPLORER PACK £285.00
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Quadspeed modems unapproved : Demon IV
£279.00
BABT approved pro - 4
£458.00
MNP 4 + 5 made in U.K.
DISK STORAGE BOXES £3.50
80 cap 31/2". ..£3.95
АП prices inc VAT. Please add £3.50 pos
PRINTER RIBBONS LARGE STOCKS CALL FOR BEST PRICES
and packing per order
IMMEDIATE MEDIA 11 Bakewell Road Peterborough PE2 OXU
Telephone
0733-371-617
24 hour service
A research scientist uncovered coded writings by the late Professor Wolfgang Porteus - relating to the very fabric of time itself. He attampted to use this knowledge to break across the space/time barrier. Having failed to solve the final problem he is now caught in a twilight world of the imagination inhabited with black angels, talking books, sumptuous maidens...
With the message he managed to send back to Earth it is now possible for you to attempt to discover the other dimension
yourself...
This game is fully menu, joystick or keyboard driven arcade graphics adventure, It has windowing and over 60 seconds of clear speech without the need for additional hardware! This game is the state of the art in Spectrum arcade/adventures.
Only £5.95 inc p&p from:
ANT Publishing. Send a large S.A.E. for complete list of software available.
UNIT A, Dept. NCE
Colne Valley Business Park, Manchester Road, Linthwaite,
Huddersfield HD7 5QG. А
€ GUNSHIP
£14.99
Microprose 0666 504326
Renowned for the quality of their flight simulators and the enormous ego of the founder of the company ‘Wild’ Bill Sealy, Microprose touched base with Gunship, а superb helicopter simulation. Although
the plot is a little tired (kill, kill, kill), the |
flight sequences are expertly pro
grammed, and the helicopter is a treat |
to fly.
@ WEC LE MANS 21499 Ocean 061 832 6633
Thrilling simulation of the Le Mans 24 hour car race. The game places in the seat of a super fast car at the beginning of the race with one objective in mind – to win the Le Mans race. Colourful and fun to play, the game sustains interest with its pretty graphics and thrilling race sequences.
€ ELITE
£14.99
Firebird 0666 504326
The ultimate, definitive acventure, trad: ing and killing game in which you take the role of a trader roaming the vast spaces of the Universe in order to gen- erate vast amounts of wealth for your-
self. You can elect to trade peacefully or |
rampage around taking out other traders and stealing their goods.
ATARI 8-BITS
Never quite making it in the popularity stakes, the Atari 8-bit machines did sell into many homes and today, this range of com- puters enjoys an almost fanatical following.
€ FLIGHT SIMULATOR II 39
SubLogic 0101 217 3564166
The best flight simulator available for
any computer bar none. This program
places you in the seat of a Piper Chero:
kee Archer single wing light aircraft and |
gives you the whole of north America to
explore. Ground detail such as the |
Statue of Liberty, Empire State building etc., are within two feet of their real- world positions. The program is so good that SubLogic applied to the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) to have the program used by real pilots in order to log practise flight time.
@ MERCENARY
£14.99
Novagen 021 449 9516
30 flight simulation, trading and killing
program. Travelling through space, your
ship develops a fault and your crash
land on the planet of Targ. To escape,
you must befriend one of the two war-
ring factions, the
Mechanoids. The game features incredi-
bly smooth flight simulation and lots of
ground detail
€ RESCUE ON FRACTALUS
£9.99
LucasFilm 0101 415 6621966
The planet of Fractalus has been over- run with alien creatures and it is your task to rescue survivors and destroy the alien defences. Rescue on Fractalus was the first game to feature a three dimensional landscape generated by fractal equations. The game has smooth
Palyars ог |
scrolling flight, and lots of thrills as you work hard to destroy the aliens.
€ POLE POSITION
£9.99
Atari 0753 33344
The first and still the best. This game places you in the seat of a formula one racing car with the engine revving, wait- ing for the flag to fall. You have an out- of-the-cockpit view of the racing track and colourful, smoothscrolling graph- ics. Lots of fun and highly addictive
@ SOLO FLIGHT
£14.99
Microprose 0666 504326
Evergreen flight simulator from Micro- prose, experts in the field. Featuring colourful, 3D graphics and a series of flight lessons which appear on-screen and talk you through the process of fly- ing, the game became popular with those who had found other flight simula- tors rather too difficult to enjoy.
ACORN BBC B
The Beeb as its affectionately known, enjoyed a moderate success amongst com- puter users during the boom years of home ‘computing. Unfortunately, the machine was a little too expensive for the average home user and consequently, never quite achieved the sales the specifications demanded.
@ ELITE
£14.99
Firebird 0666 504326
The ultimate trading, adventure and strategy shootem-up was initially released on the BBC micro where it enjoyed enormous popularity and made owners of other computers extremely jealous. 3-D space flight simulation, trad ing and killing make the game incredibly addictive
€ REPTON
£14.99
Superior 0532 459453
Colourful and highly popular maze game invohing you as a reptile cavorting around enormous caverns collecting various treasures and avoiding falling objects from above. A simple. plot but very addictive.
AMSTRAD PCW
With its green screen and poor sound сгра- bilities the Amstrad PCW is not the computer which stimulates the creative juices of games programmers, Nevertheless, one or two pop- ular programs have been converted from other formats,
@ TOMAHAWK
£14.99
Digital Integration 0273 56130
Very popular helicopter, flight simulator from Digital Integration featuring super 3D outofthe-cockpit smooth scrolling graphics and lots tq see and kill. Loses a little on the green screen but still very playable.
NEXT WEEK IN
ESSENTIALS.
SHOPPING EXPRESS
YOUR ONE STOP SHOP
MORE SOFTWARE THAN YOU CAN HANDLE! MORE HARDWARE THAN YOU CAN USE!
A590 20 mb HARD DISK AMIGA 3.5" 2nd DRIVE
with space for 2mb extra RAM to turn your AMIGA into a * DISABLE SWITCH ON LY
3 Meg machine. Essential for advanced graphics etc. Bees 907: ONLY £399 s» £79.99 ST 2nd DRIVES
* LOW POWER CONSUMPTION *OR £15 MONTHLY ALSO AVAILABLE
* HIGHLY RELIABLE A590 EXTRA RAM 1/2mb £69.99 por 172m PLEASE ASK FOR DETAILS
25
А590 Complete with 2mb extra Ram fitted
ONLY £645.99 -or
AMIGA 1mb UPGRADE ONLY £79.99 WITH CLOCK £89.99
WE STOCK MOST DATEL PRODUCTS
AMIGA A500 BATMAN PACK
* EXCELLENT R/W PERFORMANCE ONTHLY
WE STOCK SEGA, ATARI, C16, MSX, BBC/ ELECTRON, etc.
BATMAN (THE MOVIE).. NEWZEALAND STORY. DELUXE PAINT I... INTERCEPTOR. TEN STAR PACK... TOTAL R.R.P. ... LESS DISCOUN
OURPRICE.......
к] VISA тетт Licensed
Cree Broi
*(subject to status) Written details on re- quest.
*OR £15 MONTHLY
1 mec AMIGA.
as above plus half meg upgrade,
OCEANIC DISK DRIVE C64 COMPATIBLE DISK DRIVE
Smart, slim, reliable.
FREE SOFTWARE mouse, mat, mouse holder, dust MAIL
Activision Music Studio, Word Processor, Database cover and 10 disks ORDER:- Communications Program. OUR PRICE Carriage ОПЕКЕ 90 oNLY £499.99 at Cost
/ f *OR £19 MONTHLY
ORDER HOTLINE (MON to FRI)
(0782) 202269 ADVICE HOTLINE (0782) 268620 for FAST & FRIENDLY SERVICE
1 YEAR ON-SITE MAINTENANCE ONLY £10 EXTRA ON ANY PRINTER
STAR LC10
Acclaimed "Best Buy" budget printer. Now massively under-priced at just
£ 1 69.99 *OR £8 MONTHLY
STOKE-ON-TRENT 11 Market Square Arcade, Hanley Stoke-on-Trent
STAR LC10 Colour
The perfect printer for every Amiga. Colour output from all the better art packages - or just slot in a black ribbon for word processing. Cheap to run too. Very affordable
£229.99 os
SHEFFIELD 6 Waingate. Sheffield Моподет: Топу Tel: 0742.721906 Open 6 days
ST HELENS 27 Baldwin Street; St Helens Manager: Adrian Tel: 0744 27941 Closed Thursday
STAR LC24 - 10
24 Pin quality at a price you can afford. 8 Fonts, 3 print variations, paper park- ing, 170 CPS draft, 57 CPS LQ
£259.99 ч: оп. FREE Cable with every Printer
STOCKPORT 6 Mealhouse Brow, (Off Little Underbank), Stockport. Manager: Ray Tel: 061 480 2693 Closed Thursday
2% SHOPPING EXPRESS
KILDARE BBSV21 at present 2100-2400 Amiga 045 21437.
WEIRD pets? Snakes, Spiders, Piranahs, any other pets? There is no 5.1.6. quite like this one! The loft 0442 230461 8М Drop Spiderman A Line.
‘BATH BBS' the only Multiline "Atari" based board in the U.K. Call 0225 835841/840060 8N1 V21/23/22/22BIS the best Atari board in the west!
PROBLEMS with comms — write now to Martin Carter, Unit One, 13 Bear Lane, Southwark, London SE1 WH with Hardware and Software details and your address.
PHANTOM Viewdata BBS – 24hr 0226 340425 — over 1000 pages available plus some special CVG areas - Log on and try it today.
HALFWITS BBS. Now on line from noon Until midnight weekdays and all weekend. Includes Framework, where you could finance next quarter's telephone bill! 2400/1200. 0272 340310.
THE Loft BBS, IBM and Atari support with оп line games, technical DBase and large PD collection - Call us now on 0442 230461 24hrs. V21, V22, V23,V22bis 8NI Protocols.
SHEFFIELD'S alternative solution BBS. Phone: 0742 325232, V21/22/23/22Bis, 8N1, 24hrs. Atari, ІВМ, Amiga, BBC down loads, on-line games, messages etc. All welcome, no fees! Node #1022,
€ HELP WANTED
club for handicapped people. Keyboards, Rock/Pop music, C & W, variety etc. For
BRIGHTON, Sussex entertainers wanted at. |
information phone Ken: Brighton 502460, evenings.
CAN any genius help me finish the following ST games: Deja Vu, Uninvited Il, Bards Tale 1, Crash Garrett. Token thank you gift in return: Mike, PO Box 8139, Dubai UAE.
HELP! m addicted to Bubble Bobble, can anyone help me get it for Amiga. Contact: Jason, 24 Craigleith Hill Avenue, Edinburgh, EHG 2JA.
DID you know the Spectrum can the same number of colours on screen as the new
Atari STE? Wanted: Amiga contacts at: King shill School, find details on E5 notice board.
@ OTHER
SLAYTANIC Cult ST user group require contacts. Rush your replies to Mandy, 138E Ramsay Road, Hawick, Roxburghshire TD9 00Р
SEGA Mode, great newsletter/fanzine inc news, reviews + more. A4 S.A.E. to 6 Albe- marle Road, St мес, Cambs P17 6UN. for a pilot issue now! Dedicated to the SEGA.
AMIGA contacts to exchange software,
| demos, info (no games) long letters. lan, 1
Pembroke Gardens, Hove, East Sussex BN3 5DY. Amiga Artist? Interested in Fanzine?
EPSON HX20 Laptop bought at local show, no manuals or P.S.U. swap for Amiga Sam pler or WHY G White, 9 Wood St, Glasgow 631 3В7.
| FINGERBOBS ST division require non
lamer contacts. Write now to Oberje, 6 Car- ron Terrace, Stonehaven AV3 2HX
BASIC L. Version written by University of Sheffield for teaching purposes. any info
would be greatly appreciated. Write: A de
| Grey, 30 Stilecroft Gardens, North Wemb-
ley, Middx HAO 3HD. @ USER GROUPS |
ATARI 1040 STFM 1Mb memory, 1 Meg 3.5 DD. Brand new boxed, unwanted gift, going cheap only £350. Tel: 021 356 2288, after 6pm.
| CBM 64, Brother printer, C2N cassette
AMIGA newcomer, contacts wanted, usual stuff — swap games, tips etc. Where do |
get cheap disks? Write to Kev: 20 Cypress Avenue, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire LG6 200.
SHARP users, Sharp Users Club, the only club left for full support of ali models. Con- tact: Andrew Ferguson, 11 Harcourt Close, Henley.On-Thames, Oxon.
TI99/4A Users Group UK: Membership Secretary: Peter Walker, 24 Bacons Drive, Cuffley, Herts, EN6 4DU, £12.50 PA. Quar- terly 60 page mag plus software. TI99/4A continues.
| deck, 1571 disk drive, software, light pen, | mouse, joystick, manuals, books, maga-
zines, £360 o.n.o. Buyer collects. Tel: 0787 77842
ST software from £8. Space Harrier, Power- drome, Falcon (Mission), Offshore Warrior, SDI, Thunderblade, Space Quest Ill, Leisure Suit Harry І, Police Quest II. Tel: 0245 413385.
PET complete setup, double disk drive, printer, word processor package, full instructions, good first package only £100.00. Tel: 0628 36020, Maidenhead,
| Berks.
HYPERPAD - interested in forming a user group? SAE to Dave Langstaff, 78 Harrison Road, Swaythling, Southampton, SD2 37J.
ADVENTURE enthusiast seeks contacts to exchange ideas etc for ST and PC games. Mr S Lucas, 47 Longcroft Lane, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire.
MICROVITEC 14 ins medium resolution colour monitor RGB-TTL input model 1451 DS. £150 о.п.о. Tel: 0244 310265 (Chester).
AMSTRAD 6128, mono monitor, modula: tor, tape recorder, joystick, £500. Games,
| mags worth £900, accept £350 o.n.o.
ST users in Bradford, I'm starting a users group, just contact Dave on: 614945 and get the most out of your ST. NO FEES!
JOIN the first free national ST user club. Register now! Make the most of your ST. David Dean, 5 Alpine Drive, Hednesford, Cannock, Staffs, WJ12 5NL.
© FOR SALE
ATARI 520 STFM one mega drive with soft- ware, mags, books, joystick, boxed. Bar- gain £220. Tel: 0908 377029, evenings or weekend (Bucks).
V.G.C. Phone Tony on (0532) 663750 after 6 pm, weekdays.
BBC Master (word processor, editor, spreadsheet) 5.25-inch disk drive, mouse & paint utility. Screendump Rom. Software & games, £500 о.п.о. Tel: 0276 73267, all in excellent condition & with boxes.
BONDWELL ProBT Laptop IBM compatible MS-DOS 3.3 1Mb 1 x 3.5inch 20Mb, dual speed ice blue, backlit screen, internal modem, software included, Lotus Metro,
| easy framework £750. Tel: 0704.66485.
CHASE HQ (BOTH FORMATS)
MIJTRNT SOFTWARE
ANIMAL'S TOP TEN BEST SELLERS IT CAME FROM THE DESERT (AMIGA ONLY) PRO TENNIS TOUR (BOTH FORMATS) THE GAMES SUMMER EDITION (BOTH FORMATS) STUNT CAR RACER (BOTH FORMATS) FUTURE WARS (BOTH FORMATS) FIGHTER BOMBER (BOTH FORMATS) F29 RETALIATOR (BOTH FORMATS) THE UNTOUCHABLES (BOTH FORMATS) DOUBLE DRAGON Ii (BOTH FORMATS)
21.99 16.99 16.99 16.99 16.99 21.99 16.99 16.99 14.99 16.99
AMIGA A500+10 STAR PACK *MODULATOR -JOYSTICK +DELIVERY
£399.00
KONIX PREDATOR JOYSTICK
To order senc MUTANT SOFTWARE, Т Or ring 078 481
10 BLANK 3.5" DS/DD DISKS 10 TDK BLANK 3.5" DS/DD DISKS
9.99 7.99 11.99
7.99 12.99
heque or Postal Order to: STAINES ROAD, BEDFONT, MIDDN. 4 and 01890 3296 or 0753 580340 | PERIPHERALS AND HARDWARE
SUPERB QUALITY DISKS AT GIVEAWAY PRICES
3.5" DISKS + BOX
3.5" DISKS.. 3.5" 3.5" 3.5" 3.5"
COMPUTER SPECIALIST
10 CHANDLERS COURT
EATON NORWICH 0603
NORFOLK 503382
КАШ = 72259722 =
covess |
BS" эрер ооо
SRA BPS 2 "27
mmm -zez2 oo
Ladbroke Computing Л
In terna tional 33 Ormskirk Жек Preston, PRI 2QP. “The Country s Leading 16 Bit Specialist” Open Mon. - 00 am to 5:00 pm
Dealer ES riis 89А
Can You Afford to Shop Elsewhere? Alf Prices /nc. VAT
Tre b supported by oor у e rin D puris at ne of going to press and are mist to change without prior notice. Phone for latest prices, information, advice,
? Stereo ОМА sound. > Upgradeable internally 4 Mb. > Blitter chipfitted. › Ports for up to 6 joysticks,
New TOS 1. ien Uu n. m Me: › Extended palette. > а.
S20STE Explorer Pack £279 99 SOSTE Power Pack — £369 99] J040.57E Hyper Pack £459 99 | F8
Midistudio is an attractively E] 20 track Midi Sequencing package. It can > =. Demonstration disk (low res) £3.99 (£2.00 redeemable) record up to 682 bars per phrase(pattern) on up to 100 phrases. Any phrase
can be placed on any track. Tracks can be зо; ей and muted and tracks and емо rm M p rhe oon Salana for aoh of the ST and accepts scanned informati ables which fix easily
i In ББА, The desk featur i lux o to the head of any Epson compatible | be saved i I " any " le printer. Images d in raw data, э Degas, Neo and IMG. for its, Best res are e оќо copies. ы i opu £699 — {1% ке ис ta Eel | Sang ncding а nans ain) ll 10 | £64.99 £74.99 1000 dots per inch horizontally. An example disk is available which contains **Demo disk £3.99*****
а slide show of low resolution images scanned with this product. The cost
All disks are quality Sony, Maxcell or Kao products..| of this disk is £3.99, £2.00 of which is redecmable on purchase of a scanner. All disks сату an unconditional lifetime guarantee. | УЙ m 7 ^
Please add 60р P&P for each pack of ten disks. T. Best Price Printers ST & Amiga Disk drives | ST & Amiga Hard drives
1 £159.99 * Cumana 1Mb slimline (S 99 Vea 4OMb (ST & Amigo £499.99
- 118999 * Ladbroke's 1МЬ (ST)... м: 474.99
> £199.99 * Cumana internal 1Mb, ST) £74. Mais GD 159939 Star LC-24/10 123999 * Please note, ST's case needs cutting Supra 30Mb_ (ST) £474.99 Epson [0500 131999 * to accomodate this internal drive Third Coast 65 Mb (ST) #509999 у Citizen 1200 £134.99 * А/В boot switch, fitted (ST). 5 (Amiga) 659.99
" P Cumana 1Mb slimline, disable switch, throu; 1 (Amiga). 5 Professional Printers Lacoke's IM doable switch, tough port Amiga 210939 | We ae offering a range of high rm Het ag троа
All have the following minimum ion. Full cas size | colour as Mega ST, 60 watt t PSU, room for second mechanism. The low power controller is full SCSI and allows up to 8 drives on} one controller, The software includes Autopark, Auloboo! from any partition, partition size up to 1 Gigaby number of partitions, | Atari M T к. BLA ? K Hd 100% AHDI 3.2 compatible driver, write protect any partition. Atari "olo k fi д ч Philip 8833 Colo — £24 £ 2499|40HD 42 Mb formatted, 11Ms average access time, Ph Colour £239.99 * Mouse Mats fom. Ё $99|64K on board cache memory....... £ 549.99 Philips 15° PST remote, Scart Mousel joystick жие i SOHD 48 Mb fi ted, 30M: * input, Tv with 60 tuner presets Amiga Modulator 19: ormattei d Ae [ape UAE атау UK Nail эу. АЙ timer and teletext. — £259.99 Hawk scanner 85HD 83 Mb formatted, 28Ms. . . . . complete with cable, On site warranty UK Mainland only. АШ Deduct £10 if bought with computer, scart cable included | 180HD 180 Mb formatted, 20Ms. 75199999
Repair Centre & Upgrade SGSnel Networking
_OPGRADES EX-STOCK › Network up to 32 ST's. ? Pull data correction. SCSnet Starter kit S12K RAM upgrade STEM, Кї. £ 9999 ° 512К RAM upgrade ЅТЕМ, fined. £ 84.99 * | > Up to 500! between ST's. ? Uses Midi Ports
512К RAM upgrade STM, fitted. £ 84.99 * 512К & 2Mb upgrade boards, fitted (ST). £ 59.99 |) Supports up to 12 Hard disk or RAM disk partitions if present. Board + 512K RAM, fitted (ST). £119.99 Board + 2Mb RAM, kit (ST). 43499 1 | er ИРЕ MAY be restricted from хози wd on kit
Star PR-10, 9 pin, 300 cps draft, 76 eps NLQ. £ Star FR-15, 15° carriage version. £ Star XB-24/10, 24 pin, 80 cps SLQ, LO. £ Star XB-24/10 with colour upgrade fitted. £ Star XB-24/15, 15” carriage version. Н
£
£
‘Star XB-24/15 with colour upgrade fitted. ‘Star Laser printer 8, 1 Megabyte RAM. Star Laser Printer 8 DB, double bin version.
lected operations, such as file deletion, modification. Board + 2МЬ ВА! £299.99 Вом + 4Mb ВАМ, fitted (ST). юэ» | T ee г е и 99.95
STEM Blitter chip, kit. £ 39.99 * STEM Blitter chip, fitted. £ 49.99 *
SIK RAM board (Amiga) £ 1999 512К RAM board populated (Amiga). Е 7999 tre GCR Mac Emulation
512K RAM board+clock (Amiga). £ 29.99 512К RAM boardtclock populated (Amiga). £ 89.99 T ST M h ph Spectre ССК without ROMS * Please check configuration before ordering. Our Atari trained engincers can repair all hardware, ка Wee eta to Macintosh disks.
7299 99 including Amigas, in minimum time at competetive prices. Pitting prices quoted for machines not 99% of all paci previously tampered with. All upgrades and repairs carry our 3 months parts and labour guarantee. Айе Macintosh ROMs available from stock, SPACE ма Е 128K ROMS
Entertainment Pack Ad Flat bed Scanner £499 Busmess and ? Systems
520 STFM Explorer Pack £269.99 * | Luteoke Computing’s A4 Flat bed scanners, scan st 200 dpi The| Mega ST 1 + Mono Monitor £ 599.99 320 STFM Power Pack £349.99* Shr Read mechanian includes а thermal winter which cao be} Mega ST 2+ Mono Monitor £ 499 99* 1040 STFM Hyper Pack £439.99 * 25 „шу doue т piste, The nator toons аара | Mega ST 4 + Mono Monitor £1199.99
1040 STEM. PRO 12 Pack £439.99 * | хш sottrae тә) repente pis сайи stents | A nar? Portfolio (pocket рс) £ 224.99 iva Be £369 99 touching up of scanned images, cable and thermal - 7i * 96, 249.99 jp pem Pie Pack p.74 stra tes in ettet es Atari РСЯ (80286) ЕТМӘ
Phone far ЖУ, bility ^ Же most cost effective piece of office equipment you could owa. | Afari PC S (80386) £2069 99 The Batman Plus Pack Includes ASOO Batman pack, mouse mat, Phone for Handy ЗАЛЕЗ. A2Z000+PC-XT+HD+ Monitor £1584, 99
joystick, modulator, plus the Tenstar pack and Pholon Paint. 3 DTP Mega 2 Pack £1764.99* The Power Pack consists of Organiser soft ware, First BASIC, Picst ШААРГА ОРА | Includes Мез» 2. SM124 Mono moniter, SUMO3 Laser printer with 90
Music, and iod wari consisting of Afterburner, Тур, Gauntlet I days on site warranty and an external 3.5" floppy d
ce harrier, Overlander, Super kuey, Starglider, |20 25° disk box , Computer dustcover — £399| DZP Mega 4 Pack 41999 99 бр нат em Pacmania, Predator, Bombjack, Bombuzal, | 50 3.5” disk box £6. Monitor dustcover 96 | Includes Megad, SM124 Mono monitor, SLM804 Laser printer with 90 Xenon, Double Dragon, Blacklamp, Outrun, Stargoose, Starray. | 80100 3.5" disk box х Printer бшйсоуег days оп site Warranty. — ‘one
jl disk care kit z s Hard 5 а, ege, Next Day Delivery only £5 extra mes Disk deve corer £219 * Phone for availabili
== (0772)203166 Fax 561071 ӨШ
‘Computing International ited. Coor Date 20/12/89 quote this code:
28 SHOPPING EXPRESS
Qut Run Bombuzal
Nebulus. Stargoose. Xenon Fret Music for
a £339.00
Black Lamp Оте — Only Inc VAT & delivery
Матау 520 ST Explorer Pack latest version with 1Mb drive, 512K RAM .. 1040 STE includes 1Mb drive, 1Mb RAM, with built-in TV modulator 1040 STFM Hyper Pack, including ' рк Paint’, ‘Hyper Draw’, ‘First BASIC’, ‘Organiser’ plus £50 Atari Software Offer Voucher Mega ST1 with monochrome monitor Mega ST2 with monochrome monitor Mega ST4 with monochrome monitor SM124 monochrome monitor .. £119.00 bought with ST . SC1224 colour monitor ... Philips CM8832 14" colour monitor c/w ST cable ITT CP3228 16.5" TV/Monitor with remote control & ST cable ..
AMIGA ACCESSORIES
External 5.25" 40/80 track switchable floppy drive
Midi Interface by Omega Projects, including 30" serial connector
Contriver Hi-Res replacement mouse, with mouse mat and pocket .
Vortex ‘System 2000' 40МЫ hard disk, with interface & software
ITT CP3228 16.5" TV/Monitor with full remote control and SCART cable
Philips CM8833 stereo sound version of above, + video/audio inputs, c/w cable Amiga 500 dust cover .
PY [ey Т 512K RAM 512K RAM one ctore as cou asor with Clock bel
Compact size (or without) Uses only 4 high spec RAMs
DOUBLE TAKE! PYEHSSEST TV/MONITOR
(MODEL 2325)
Superb quality, stylish medium resolution FST colour TV/monitor to suit the Amiga or Atari ST. Features teletext, full infra-red remote, SCART connector, Video/Audio inputs and headphone output, 40 tuner presets, ext. aerial connector and а loop aerial. Supplied with cable (please state computer type ordering).
Amiga & ST 3.5" Drives
* Very Quiet Fully compatible, high quality 3.5" Slimline Stylin external drives for the ST land Ang
*Fully Comp: Amiga version only £69.95
жт quality dene. / Citizen drive mechanism > s Atari ST version only £74.95 Prices include VAT & delivery
ALL THIS FOR JUST
£269.00
Includes VAT and computer. connection lead
*On/Off switch for Amiga »xExternal plug-in PSU for ST
»*Throughport for Amiga ж IMb unformatted capacity
Western Digital Filecards
Upgrading your PC to hard disk? Look no further, we offer the best prices оп top quality hardcards. Thorough documentation supplied, low power кро, with free XTree file management software and Speedread. For Amstrad PC users we supply hardcards tested and formatted, with our simple software installation procedure. The best packages available!
21MB..£225.00 32MB..£239.00 _40MB...£289.00 3.5" disks 5.25" disks
10..£ 9.95 іп plastic case £11.95 11.95 іп 50 cap box £18. 25..£22.95 їп 40 cap case £29.95 + > іп 100 сар box £2 Fully guaranteed double sided. media Fully guaranteed double sided med
We offer a wide choice of Amstrad PCs with many upgrade options. For the hard disk option, check our 'Evesham Upgraded Models'. Only the best will do - so we normally upgrade by means of a Western Digital Filecard, which includes XTree & SpeedRead software; however on single drive 1512/1640 models we can offer internal installations at the same price (leaving more expansion room but no upgrade opportunity for a 2nd floppy drive). Prices in lighter type exclude VAT.
Free with 1512 models... Ability and 4 US Gold Games
87304 ME 933.91 1004.00 @ 1074.00 76000 74.00
12 MONTHS ON-SITE MAINTENANCE PROVIDED WITH ALL MODELS OF PC1512, 1640 AND 2086 FREE OF CHARGE |
ассеѕѕогіеѕ
Enhancer 101 replacement keyboard ... £74.95, 3,5" drive (720K) for SD models . 79.95 PC2000 series compatible
5.25" (360K) external drive Genius GM6000 Mouse package Konix PC Joystick & Controller Card
Amstrad PPCs Low prices on all portable PCs - especially twin drive models prices in brackets are excluding VAT £477.39) £549.00 PPC512D . £433.91) £499.00 PPC640D £546.96) £629.00
Low price External 3.5" floppy drive (720K), suits any Amstrad PC 1512/1640 inc. DD and HD models, uses no expansion slots £99.95
84.95 £34.95 £28.95
Central Point Software For all your PC disk management requirements
PC Tools Deluxe Ver.5.5...oter utilities may claim to ‘do it alf but only PC Tools Deluxe| is ep pe d rem , providing a fast hard disk the best undelete available, | 100% safe formatting of floppy and hard disks, unformat, reliable disk caching, compress [pa lin fact everything required to manage & protect your data at a sensible price.. £59.
PRINTERS
All prices include VAT, delivery and cable
and recommend Star printers since they do nbeatable combination of features. print lue. Get it right with a jal, all in, prices. We can provide ance contracts for only £5.75 extra. multifont 24 pin printer, amazing low price ... £239.00 Star LC10 best-selling 144/36cps printer, 4 NLQ fonts, inc.2 extra ribbons free .. £169.00 Star LC10 7-colour version of above printer, inc.2 extra black ribbons Star LC15 wide carriage version of LC10 . Star LC24-15 wide carriage version of LC24-10 : Star FR-10 new Professional 9pin 300/76 cps, 31K buffer, 16 NLQ fonts, EE-PROM configuration and 12 months on-site maintenance ....... Star FR-15 9pin as FR10, wide version Star XB24-10 Professional 24pin: 27K buffer, 4 SLQ & 25 LQ fonts with EE-PROM configuration memory and 12 months on-site maintenance Star XB24-15 wide carriage version of XB24-10, with 41K buffer NEC P2200 budget 24pin, great value 168/56 cps a Olivetti DM100S Super 9 pin 200/30 cps, Inc.1 year on-site maintenance! ... Amstrad DMP3160/3250DI good value 10° Әріп. Panasonic KXP1081 reliable budget 10" printer 120/24 cps к Panasonic KXP1180 super пем Әріп with over 3400 typestyles, 11" carriage -... Panasonic КХР1124 good quality 11" multifont 24pin printer Epson LX800 popular 10* 180/25 cps Epson LQ550 (was 1.0500) good 24pin printer 150/50 cps Citizen 1200 good value 10° 120 cps Mannesmann Tally MT-81 130/24 cps ..
FIOW TO ORDEF
Express courier deliver? £500 ata | Evesham Micros Ltd
Send ie, P.O. or ACCESS/VISA details Phone with AOGESSWVIGA dotais e впаде iuf rect
subject 19 avalabity EESE MN] WR11 4SF оаза ает E ESE Gres
EE d Tel: 0386 765500 Also at: 1762 Pershore Rd., Cotteridge, Birmingham, B30 3BH Tel: 021 458 4564
Two names you can trust
i ] г e $ P. FE f A [ Ы TOP QUALITY - HIGH PERFORMANCE! се r | e S = All prices shown include VAT, delivery w and 12 months on-site maintenance | M MB em л % NEC-V30 microprocessor 10Mhz clock speed, 0 wait states * 640K RAM standard, upgradeable to 2.5Mb on motherboard = % Single ог Double 3.5" floppy drives with 720K formatted capacity + Optional 20Mb Hard Drive version also available, with 27ms access time Ф 3 Full size 8-bit XT-compatible expansion slots * Socket for 8087 maths co-processor * interface and ! x Centronics Parallel interface А Н {Союш ог 4" Flat стоп Мото, (dot pitch 030mm Тор value, high Ф Mean PS Mefece socks for eyoaord and mouse s ! forming 9-pi Ue ee а огон e, du an waver - -ros юг 5 pe orm Ing t pin $ Optional extemal 5.25" drive also available - phone to neck. availabilty. dot m atrix printer * Plus: 'Logotron 84п-1 Professional’ integrated package, free with all models. 4 О 20005 draft. S0cps NLQ print speed О Pica, Elite an indensed printing 4 O Standard Centronics Parallel interface | TWIN FD | £1148.85 | £1378.85 O Friction and Tractor feed | 20MB HD | £1493.85 5 : [21263.85 | £1493.85 | O Optional auto cut sheet feeder available 40MB HD [1378.85 | £1608.85 UNBELIEVABLE | || FREE WITH ANY PCS 286- OLIVETTI DM100S PRINTER PRICE ! AND 'LOGOTRON EIGHT-IN-ONE PROFESSIONAL' ! 7] * Inte! 80286 microprocessor 12MHz clock speed, 1 wait states 0 * 1Mb RAM standard, upgradeable to 4Mb on motherboard
% Single or Twin 3.5" floppy drives with 1.44Mb formatted capacity * Optional Hard Drive versions: 20Mb (27ms access time) or 40Mb (29ms) Ф 3 Full size expansion slots; 1 x 8bit and 2 х 16bit XT/AT-compatible
Ф Socket for 80287 maths co-processor
Ф 1 х RS232 Serial interface and 1 x Centronics Parallel interface
Ф VGA compatible (OVC) display controller fitted standard
% VGA monitor supplied: 14" Colour or 14" Flat-screen Mono. (dot pitch 0.39mm) * Optional ‘Genius GN-UZ' hi-res mouse available for only £49.95 inc VAT + Optional external 5.25" drive also available - phone to check availabilty.
£129.95
Cut sheet feeder also available for only £79.95 Prices include VAT, delivery and 12 months on-site maintenance!
зх 80286 Processor running at 8Mhz clock speed tx 640K RAM standard, expandable to 1Mb *3 *
SUPERB LOW PRICES ON THIS GOOD QUALITY
AT-type & 3 XT-type Expansion slots 1 RS232 Serial and 1 Parallel ports зх Disk controller supports two floppy and two hard disk drives
Price Breakthrough!
| ABC-286 S.D./30Mb with Mono Monitor ... £ 999.00;
ABC-286 S.D./30Mb tx One 3.5" (720K) floppy drive and a 30Mb hard
i А Monitor ..... Y : disk drive fitled as standard With EGA МО £1199.00 8 X Socket for 80287-8 Maths Co-Processor
| ззооооооооооововавевваваааяаававее | х Video graphics adapter supports EGA, CGA,
IBM PC-AT-286 COMPATIBLE
OLIVETTI PG-306 High performance HP-Laserjet compatible laserprinter
O 75 to 300 dpi graphics resolution 114425)
гарһі О 6 pages/min. (A4/B5/ letter/legal) rie INC.VAT, DELIVERY
AND 12 MONTHS
Rs C) 12 months on-site maintenance ME
Optional 5.25" 1.2Mb internally
fitted floppy drive available ..... £119.00 | I Prices include VAT/Delivery |
MDA and Hercules, with digital video port *x Dimensions: 15 x 38 x 41cm *x With 84-key DIN spec. AT-Protocol keyboard зх Supplied with MS-DOS 3.3 and GW-BASIC
How to order from [Apis include VAT and delivery. Express Courier delivery 5.00 extra. | N Send cheque, Postal Order |Evesham Micros Ltd Evesham Micros UNIT 9 ST RICHARDS RD
hone us with your ACCESS or VISA card details on : т 0386-765500 |».
Govt., educ. & PLC orders welcome
Same day despatch whenever possible
All goods subject to availability, E.&O.E. Open to callers 6 days, 9.30-5.30
Жай 1762 Pershore Road, Cotteridge, Birmingham B30 3BH Tel: 021 458 4564 63 Bridge Street, Evesham, Worcs WRII 4SF Tel: 0386 765180
EVESHAM WORCS WR11 6XJ
€ 0386-765500 fax 0386-765354
5 Glisson Road, Cambridge СВІ 2HA Tel: 0223 323898
SHOPPING EXPRESS READER ADS
There are great bargains to be had in our reader ads section, but remember to check before you buy - we cannot be held responsible for the quality of the goods on offer!
@ PERSONAL
AMIGA contacts wanted to swap hints, tips etc. No lamers please. Come on female Amiga owners! Hi to all my contacts. Hi Steve. 23 Cherrymount, Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland
and absolutely crazy on the Archie but heck! What the hell need software, demo writers in C Basic. Ring 01- 737 3303.
DEMOS, games, utils, are there any seri ous programmers out there who wish to exchange and give software and ideas?
| Please call London 01-737 3303 7pm Ben. AMIGA contacts wanted 100 per cent | reply, send lists & disks to T.N.T. of Enigma, | 33/Pomfrest Gardens, Stockwood, Bristol. BS14 8XS. Tel: 0272 837471. .5Mb upgrade 65: Also wanted any music pro: gram,
AMIGA contacts wanted to swap latest stuff. Send list and disk 100 per cent reply write to Mike, 64 Townsend St, Cheltenham, Glos GL51 9 HB.
WANTED Amiga contacts. Are you fast, reli-
FEMALE CPC owner wants Pen-Pals. Reply promised write fully to; Julie, 149 Malvern Crescent, Darlington, Co Durham DL3 9UN. Also wanting Elite original to buy (disk)?!
AMIGA contacts wanted must be fast. Send disks and lists to Perv, 4 Annan Court, Asply, Notts or tel. 0602 299435 beginners welcome.
AMIGA owner wishes to contact others in same area. Send disk's lists or just a hello to Steve, 12 Ashwell Road, Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk IP33 3LU.
ARCHIE user and 2nd year degree student
able, and incredible witty? Write (with disk) to Dave, hill View, Rush Hill, Farrington Gur- ney, Avon BS18 STP. 100 per cent return.
DOES anyone know the whereabouts of Phil Goldie last known location Plumstead, Lon- don. Please contact Philip Beed, 83 Sey- mour Road, Lee on Solent, Hants PO13 9ER.
HI to Hal, Ozz and Was. Thanks for the call. stay lucky. Elric 0332 41630.
CAPITAL CITY writer seeks urgent help with hacking storyline. Absolute confidential- ity guaranteed. Call Jon on 01-569 7214.
| latest stuff. Write to Andra + Me! 50 Avon
LONELY 386 owner seeks female pen-pal with or without PC with view to long and per- manent friendship, and to swap hints, tips, software. Likes Graphics & DTP. Norman, 3 Weston Square, Albury, Nr Guilford, Surrey.
AMIGA + C64 contacts wanted to swap the Avenue, Carluke, Scotland MLB 500.
DUNGEON master, Bloodwych Fans, wait- ing for new levels. Enthusiasts contact me for exchange of hints and tips. Lets | exchange info amongst ourselves on ай software. 25 Sommerville Close, Faver- sham, Kent.
GFA Basic contact wanted for source code swap etc. Write to Lee, 49 Sherborne Road, Aspley Estate, Nottingham NGB 5Р7.
AMIGA contact wanted, Male or female. Write to: Willie, 23 Cherrymount, Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland. Hi Neutron UK and Powervision UK. Also Big Hi to D.D.C.!
AMIGA contacts wanted 100 per cent reply all welcome write to Sean, 31 Stansfield Road, Todmorden, Lanc’s. Tel: 0706 816329. Hi to Yakuza, Paul
+L to go to next level, from any level. From Kev (and Daryl. Hi to Jon and all Amiga ‘owners in ‘The Port’!
PUSH all the keys down on the ttle screen, New Zeeland Story on the C64 for lives push left Arrow Key to skip Screens.
PC Engine on Fantasy Zone: on Phanse the game Press 1 owe Il twice UP 3 times, down 4 times, Right 5 times, Left 6 times to run through anything do this every level.
CPC Multiface Poke for CABAL Address. 1972 Poke 00 effect Invunerability
want Poke/cheat for Rambo III Car! Surrey, 37 Fairfield Way, Barnet, Herts EN5 2BQ.
€ HELP OFFERED
ORIC Atmos owners – Do you seek new software, a user group, Disk or Cassette Newsletters, or help ~ send large S.A.E. to D Dick, 65 Barnard Crescent, Aylesbury, Bucks.
ТО be frank it's brilliant. It's the Gnome At home BBS, V23, 24hrs. Just dial 01-888.
€ SERVICES Ф
WANTED 3.5-inch external disk drive for use with Spectrum + 3. Tel: Barry 0908 664658 evenings (Bucks).
0226 340425 24hrs View data BBS. Log оп to this professional looking system and enjoy!
OLEF 1 Your on line electronic friend. A 24 hour BBS. It's FREE and all callers are wel- come. Phone 01-882 9808.
CAN you output DTP files from the com- modore 64 to laser printer? Contact $ Daniels on 0327 843249. If you can | will make it worth your while.
@ MINI TIPS
INSANITY Fight. Press both mouse buttons
PHASE 2 Bulletin Board now omine. 24hrs Viewdata (scrolling soon). Loadsa new sec tions. Sysop is transistor. Fast 20Mb drive. Self run sections available. Ring (081) 330 7738.
Т.С. COMPUTERS
oon OXI 7 0X12 7EB
Amiga А500 Batman pack ........ Amiga A500 Starter pack
Amiga А500 10 Star pack .... Amiga A500 with 1 Mb RAM. Amiga A500 with 2nd disk drive ... Amiga А500 + Colour monitor Amiga A500 System pack
Commodore 64 Light Fantastic
Atari 520 ST-FM New Power Pack
e 1040ST-FM Ultimate Pack clair 42 ....
Sinclar +3.
Commodore РС-10 IIl SD Mono Commodore PC-10 III SD CGA Colour Commodore PC-10 Ш SD EGA Colour.
Commodore PC-20 III SD 20Mb EGA Colour.
Commodore PC-30 IIl SD 20Mb HD EGA Colour...
Atari PC-3 SD Mono
Atari PC-3 DD Mono...
Atari PC-3 DD CGA Colour. Atari PC-3 DD EGA Colour...
Star LC10 mono
Star LC10 Col...
Star LC24 10 mono.
Citizen Swift 24 ..
Citizen Swift 24 col Я Commodore МРЅ 1230 mono...
NEW COMPUTERS FOR OLD!
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Want a fast AT but can't afford one? The best answer is to fit a new motherboard... most XTs and XT clones can be upgraded easily with our 12MHz turbo AT board. In most cases it just replaces your old XT board, and you keep all your existing disk drives, controllers and display. We supply full instructions and will even give you £10 back if
you return your old (but working) XT board! The AT turbo motherboard is a high quality board, with full manual and legal BIOS. It can hold up to 4Mbytes of RAM with EMS capability. We can also supply a similar board which also has a floppy controller, 2 serial ports and a parallel port all on the board!
VGA UPGRADE? Our VGA controller drives mono, CGA, EGA, VGA and Multisync monitors and supports MDA, Hercules, CGA, EGA and VGA modes too! It even detects the bus size and selects 8 or 16 bit operation! Just to help you, we will give you a fiver for your old Hercules or CGA board, and a tenner for your old EGA board!
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ACCESS or AMERICAN EXPRESS welcome by post or phone. Callers by appointment please. VAT INCLUDED. Please add £1 for post and packing. Catalogue free. No minimum order charge.
BLACKMORE ELECTRONICS LTD. FREEPOST, Blandford Forum
PRINTERS from £149 DISK DRIVES from £80 Commodore PCs incl. FREE 12 month on-site warranty and 102 keyboard. Atari PCs incl. FREE software and mouse. SOFTWARE at up to 30% OFF.
OXFORDSHIRE'S PREMIER COMMODORE DEALER WANTAGE 02357 - 60177 ALL PRICES
INCLUSIVE OF VAT [n
Dorset DT11 7BR Office address: 4 The Plocks, Blandford
0258 451347 (24 hr answerphone)
—
A COLD-SORE INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATION NEXT YEAR'S NEWS - TODAY ISSUE 3 JAN 97
(SPENT A NIGHT AT BITES MOTEL AND E
Even MOTHER would like these prices
A500 HALF MEG H FREE
£68 A500 TWO MEG (Internal . . . Mini Мах+) £289 A/B2000 TWO MEG (Microbotics 8 Up) £309 A/B2000 FOUR MEG СА (Microbotics 8 Up) £489 pum MER CD, 3 49M Drive 28М$) Eis £489 wet” icr NEC FLOPPY DRIVE (3-5” with Switch and Through Port) £68 ВҮ ТНЕ ТЇМЕ YOU READ THIS . .
Magazine deadlines are getting sillier. Most ads.
A590 UPGRADE CHIPS are out of date by the time you read them. HALFMEG 1МЕС 2 MEG SO PHONE TODAY FOR DETAILS
CT RANGE £40 £80 £150 77и
ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT AND POSTAGE & PACKAGING
с monkey!
TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME Send cheques to: Dept NCE Memory Expansion Systems Ltd. VISA У Britannia Buildings, 46 Fenwick Street, A » Liverpool L2 7NB (051) 236 0480 (051) 236 0480 - 24 Hour Sales
PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE (051) 227 2482. 24 Hour Fax
If you think you've tried the best...Try the ULTIMATE
Authorised Computer Dealers for All products listed below carry a minimum AKHTER, AMSTRAD, EPSON, IMODORE, 12 months return to base manufacturers warranty. HYUNDAI, OPUS, SHARP, МАС. SCHNEIDER Please call for Optional ON-SITE MAINTENANCE
2499 £799 || [europe AMSTRAD + Phone PPC512S £799 £1079 | | EUROAT 512K S0 jede diea redi gaso e590 || EURO AT 512K DD £980 | |PC10 IH £497 801 — £745 | | AMSTRAD > Phone L3 F4 EURO AT 1MB DO 1 РС10 Bundies inc. Framework, mouse & MPS | | AMSTRAD + Phone EURO AT 512K HD 1230 Printer. P499 — £799 | | EURO AT 1MB HD £899 £1199 PC10-00 £740 £896 £1013 £799 £1099] | Schneider Accessories PC10-HD40MB $896 £1013 £1130 £1099 £1359 £1399 | | 3.5" External Drive PC2OII-HD 640K 663! £749 8868 £1759 | | 525" External Drive. 99 | | PC30-286HD 640K 935 £1052 £1130 20Mb External Hard Disk £1199 40Mb External Hard Disk АТ80286 COMPATIBLE - VGA'S £1549 Monitor Stand £2229 PC40-40MB 1MB £1291 £1462 £2559 All Schneider PC's 8 АТ include PC40 + ТАРЕ £1559 ©1759 £2999 Microsoft Works, DOS & Manuals + 12 months on-site warranty. Includes 12 months on-site warranty
Note, Base units only. Model Mono CGA EGA Monitors are separate. Ali the following Systems are without Monitors. Please refer to monitor box. Model Mono Со! EGA VGA em
PCT SUPER 16-TE PC/XT 640K 10Mhz Metal Case £405 €405 £930 VGAS
f473 £474 *
Super 16-ТЕ S/D £361 £361 £455 £511 £163. VGAS
£65) | |Superic-TE 0/0 6430 £430 t524 Е580 £617... £877 £1209 £1332
$682 £768 £853 | | Super 16-TEHD30561 £561 £655 £711 £1342 £1465 £812 £812
cor зә” ч” И 200 IL OMHZ S12 НАМ £1015 £1015 £1663 VGA'S
‚5% 2990021008 M2s £749 0749 £749 £859 EU etie £2130 VGAS
286 HD30 £949 £949 £949 £1059 | | AT80286 12Mhz 1MB VGA £1596 £1796 VGA'S
£617 £702 £787 SPC6512/1S/D — #1015 £1015 4 3865Х 8/16 Mhz 1MB RAM SPC6512/3 HD20 £1219 £1219 £2063 £2263 VGAS
£680 £765 £851] [э coso coso £959 єтово | |SPCESI24HD40 1354 £1354 £2330 £2568 VGA'S
£85: £936 £1021 | |386 HO30 £1159 £1159£1159 £1269 | | Ar80386 20Mhz 2MB EGA 386 HD102 £2796 £3130 VGAS
j00 D/D £1693 £1693 £1693 eras по 386C 8/20 Mhz No Wait States 1MB RAM VGA | | °°
d DE -|asscs £1279 £1279 £1279 1279 | | Al Samsung Computers include 12 months All genuine models not upgraded in any way | |386C HD4o £1599 £1599 £1599 £1599 on-site maintenance.
All MITAC Systems come complete with 12 Months on-site warranty.
та Ыл == =Т= ЕЕ VPCIIC S/D £949 ©1149 £1399 7302 7713 ШИЕ | | ATARI 520ST-FK + Power Pack VPCIICD/D #1099 £1299 £1549 9 | 298 £116 AMIGA 50 + BATMAN Pack
VPCIIC HD30 £1499 £1699 £1949 Ape 1MB External Disk Drive Amiga £2299 1MB External Disk Drive Atari £ £296
£2499 42MB External Hard Disk both £2549
£2749 £76 £85 £299 Amiga to Scart Monitor Cable Ej 2 Alari to Scart Monitor Cable £294 | £383
£3749 V386S HD70 £4149 V386SHD110 £3899 £4349 У3865 HD230 £5299 £5749 е сш Philips CMBE33 ColourStereo
М 30MB ADD-PAK 399 amsung Monitors come wi Atari SM124 High Res Mono 12 Months on-site maintenance ы
Amiga Dustcovers
Competition Pro Extra Joystick
NETWARE 386 V3.0 Aldus Pagemaker V3 NETWARE SFT V2.15 Xerox Ventura V2 NETWARE Advanced V2.15. Publisher NETWARE ELS LEV II V2.15 itech Serial Mouse + Software NETWARE ELS LEV I V2.0A eee Ib Hard Сага 2 уг Waranty, NE1000 Ethernet Card. 5.25" 1 2Mb Floppy Drive a 3.5" 720K Flo noy Brive NE 2000 Ethemet Card t Norton Advanced Utilities .5* 1.44Mb Floppy Drive k Sage Sterling Sidekick Plus 102 Key Keyboards PC/AT ү ice Wo 512K to 640K Memory Upgrade Е Costi трт Tutor lankey Mouse Mats t Flight Simulator v3.0 80 col Printer Muttler BTRIEVE File Management £259 | | Crosstalk MKIV XTRIEVE File Management i Crosstalk XVI 80 col Desktop Printer Stand REPORT Generators Junior Word 132 col Desktop Printer Stand ХО! Database Management Sage Payslips - £28, Statement - £28, Junior Multiplan Screen Filters UPGRADES EROS A WOR 2 Desens DLL ES GEM Full range please call Electric A4 Copy Holder £9.
——
If you think you've tried the best...Try the ULTIMATE
Thousands of stock items, please call if what you want is not advertised. Free technical support on most products. Please ring if you have any questions.
АГ products listed below carry a minimum 12 months return to base manufacturers warranty. Please call for Optional.
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Em стих
9 PIN DOT MATRIX
STARLC10 144/36 STAR LC10-II 180/50 STAR LC10-Colour 144/36 STAR LC15 180/45 STARFRIO ж 300/76 STARFRIS ж 300/56
24 PIN DOT MATRIX
STAR LC24-10 200/67 STAR LC24-15 200/67 STAR ХВ24-10 * 240/80 STAR XB24-15 ж 240/80
LASER PRINTERS STAR LASER 8 ж BPPM STARLASER8DB ж D/BIN
* - includes On.
288/65
24 PIN DOT MATRIX KXP 1124 192/63 KXP 1540 288/65
LASER PRINTERS КХР 4450 * 11РРМ
£5.00 for 12 Months on-site warranty on any Citizen, Star, Panasonic, Hyundai, Olivetti, Mannesmann-Tally or Akhter Dot Matrix Printer. Call for details.
THINK JET QUIET JET QUIET JET + DESK JET
DESK JET + PAINT JET RUGGED WRITER
LASER PRINTERS
LASER JET IIP 4PPM £879 LASER JET Il 8PPM £1248 LASER JET IID BPPM Е1879
DM704 136 col DM309 DM309L 136 col
Ай HP's include On-Site Maintenance.
RIBBONS DISKETTES CABLES DUST COVERS
FACSIMILE BARGAIN BASEMENT
AMSTRAD FX9600T £529 + VAT 9 PIN DOT MATRIX PRINTERS MT81 10" 120/25 Hyundai-910 10" 216/37 Hyundai-920 15° 216/37 ACL 135 10° 135/27 ACL 480 10° 480/55 ACL 700 15" 480/55
18 PIN DOT MATRIX PRINTERS Hyundai 1810 10" 240/100 Hyundai 1820 15" 240/100
CONSUMABLES
KEY FEATURES
CCITT Group 3 Compatible.
Full Featured Integrated Telephone
20 Page Automatic Document Feeder ‘Automatic Cutter that cuts coples to the length of the original.
PAPER
11" x 9.5" 2000 sheet 1 part 11" x 9.5" 1000 sheet Letter Qual. 11" x 14.5" 2000 sheet music
FLOPPY DISCS (Boxed in 10's) 3M 3.5" 55/00 135 TPI 3M 3.5" 05/00 135 ТР! ЗМ 3.5" DS/HD 135 TPI ЗМ 5.25" 05/00 48 TPI 3M 5.25" DS/QD 96 ТР! ЗМ 5,25" DS/HD 1.6 MB.
BLACK COLOUR
MODEL PRICE
PLOTTERS Hitachi 681-A4/A3
400mm/sec £559 Hitachi 673/A4/A3 ^ 400mmvsec £699 Hitachi 674 AT/A4 ^ 400mm/sec £2699 All above plotters have on-site replace.
DIGITIZERS Hitachi from 11" x 12" to 44" х 60° CALL
Full range of pens, paper, stylus, cursors. Stockists for Pentel HITACHI MONITORS CM1686A1 16" 1024 x 768 50Кһг £1199 CM1686A3 16" 1280 x 1024 64Khz £1299 Hi-Scan 20" VGA 1280x 1024 Е1724 СМ2086АЗ 20" 1280 x 1024 64Khz £1783 ULTRA 21" 1280 х 1024 64Khz Е1895
XB24-10/15
CITIZEN 120D/180E.
LX400/800FX850 50 Massive stocks of other Manufacturers. Call
КОНЕН pode cod ad НЫ
ideal for solicitors,
software/hardware combination controls multiple accountants,
SPEED PRICE
180/30 £130 240/48 £178 264/54 £351 240/48 £293 300/60 £402 300/60 £530 533/400 £1087 180/60 £189 180/60 £255 264/88 £394 264/88. £543 290/88 £499 290/88 £639 400/133 £831 250/83 £1437 600/198 £575
OVERTURE 106 6PPM 600/198 £863
OVERTURE 112 12PPM
CANON LBP4 4PPM £895 CANON LBP8 Ill BPPM £1390 ‘CANON LBP8 IIIT Dual Bin £1815 CANON LBP8 IIIR Duplex Е1923
SHARP JX-9300
KYOCERA F1000
KYOCERA F1200
KYOCERA F2200S
KYOCERA P2000
BROTHER HL-8e
BROTHER HL-8D
BROTHER HL-8PS
BROTHER HL-8QS 8PPM LASER TONERS
‘Canon SX Toner £59, Panasonic £32, MT905 £24, Epson GQ3500/5000 £16, Kyocera 2 pack £69, Citizen £22,
MUFFLERS TAPESTREAMERS CONSUMABLES
BUSINESS MACHINES LTD 5 Water Street,
Earby, Colne, Lancashire, BB8 6QP SALES HOTLINE (0282) 843001 VISA...ACCESS
TERMS: All prices exclude VAT & Carriage. Strict cash with order only. Visa, Access, PO or Cheques accepted. Official orders accepted from Government, Education and substantial PLC's.
"DELIVERY UK MAINLAND
PRODUCT NEXT DAY 4DAYS HARDWARE £16.00 + VAT £10.00 + VAT SOFTWARE £10.00 + VAT £8.00 + VAT CONSUMABLES £5.00 Post & Packing + VAT-
sales forces etc. Only £169.00 + VAT.
call-logging, different cost centres and much more.
u SHOPPING EXPRESS | EXPRESS
WARNING
THIS SORT OF THIS SORT OF BILLIF YOU BILL IF PAY FOR THEM YOU DON'T
A pirated game could result in a visit from you know who.
THIS CAMPAIGN IS ORGANISED BY m А " | Any information on piracy
[1 should be passed to JL nan The Federation Against Software Theft. IS THEFT
PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Telephone 01-240 6756
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AMIGA games for sale. Robocop £15, Silk- worm £14, and many others. Phone Ajay (021) 557 1362 or write to: 26 Kenilworth Close, Tipton, West Midlands, DY4 EQ.
FOR Amstrad CPC, Rombo Rom box with Pro- text, Utopia and Maxam 1.5 Roms. All origi- nals, complete with manuals, £60 the lot, Will split. Fred, Blackpool: (0253) 593530.
AMIGA software for sale, Publishers Choice £60, Home Accounts £15, Star Glider £10, all boxed with manuals. Tel: 01-645 0325.
BROTHER HR5 printer with power supply. Still boxed, a snip at £35. Tel: Warren on (0424) 211196 (Sussex).
FOR SALE 1716 original ST 520 games, Men- ace, Robocop, R.V.F. etc or will swap for midi keyboard. Contact: Mr Woolley, 15 Pevensey Grove, Sandford Hill, Longton, S.0.T. 513 5AS.
ATARI 520STFM + 1 Meg external disk drive + mouse, joystick, disk box, mouse mat « over £500 of software £350. Tel: 870 9965 after 6 pm.
520STFM + 1 Meg external disk drive + mouse joystick disk box mouse mat + over £500 of software £350. Tel: 870 9965 after 6 pm.
AMSTRAD PCW 8512 WP software, Spread. sheet, manuals, and small library of guides. Collection of mags other software and several blank disks, all in good nick upgrading to Archie. A3000, £300 O.N.O. Tel: (0582) 391631
SPECTRUM + Interface 1, 2 Microdrives 19 cartridges multiface 1, software, all for £85. Tel: Windsor 0753 862447 or swap?
SPECTRUM 48K printer interface, joystick, cassette recorder, PSU games, £60. Amiga utilities wanted. 1 can help with spares for Amstrad Sinclair, Commodore computers 0332 760353.
FOR ST. WordUp V1.30 (Free Upgrade) £25. Fontz! £8. Fleet Street Publisher £35. Labroke 1те Scanner – up to 1000 ОР! £30. All origi- nal, virtually new. Р1 ее, 9 Havelock Road, Nor- wich, Norfolk NR2 3HQ.
SPECTRUM:2 for sale with leads, boxed as new with £600 + worth of software, £25 + of books + mags, Interface but no joystick ай worth about £800 bargain for £200 O.V.N.O. phone Scott on Stalham (0692) 82396. After 4.00 please.
COMMODORE C64 computer, sound studio synthesizer, S-Octave keyboard, FM Expander, cassette unit, games and basic learning course bargain £220 will split 0902 763642.
ATARI ST with around 400 pounds of original software + portable colour TV joysticks and mouse 385 0.N,0. Phone 886107 (Blackpool).
PAGEMAKER ROMS Disks manual for BBC/B plus 50 blank disks lockable box and Trivial Pursuits £25.00 Tel: 0695 32733 North West Possible can deliver locally
FOR sale ST games £10 Voyager, Carrier Command, Leg OT Sword, Joan Of Arc, Space Quest |, Xenon Il, PowerDrome, Silent Running, Hacker | & 1 anytime phone 061 794 5801
AMSTRAD CPC 6128 colour monitor, double disk drive. Many extras including serious and games software, recorder covers, AA subscrip- tion. Worth £900 + boxed, £475 ОМО (Bristol) 0272 691471
SHOPPING EXPRESS 3
TANDY 64K Colour Computer, manuals, leads. etc, as new stillin box, fits any TV exchange for printer or disk system, centronics, RS232. W.H.Y 0636 702196.
CPC Magnum lightgun for sale disk or cas- sette with six games boxed as new £20! Con- tact Emma, Dalbeattie House, Oaky Balks, Alnwick, North'ind NE66 300.
AMIGA 500. One year old. PSU, mouse, mouse mat, ten games, ten blank disks, modu- lator, books, workbench « extras 1.2, dust cover. £250. Ring 0224 824904,
‘SPECTRUM +3, joystick, some games, 5 disks. Hisoft Basic Compiler, in original boxes excellent condition £120 Tel: (091) 3886057.
JOYSTICK EACA EG2031 unused offers 0582 660950 Dunstable.
SPECTRUM 48K joystick books software Mr Men, Designer Pencil, Hobbit, Monopoly, Win- ter Games, plus Eleven other including Educa- tional. £25 cash if you collect Telephone 01-651-4171 Croydon.
COMMANDER PET. Complete SetUp, Printer, twin 5.25 Disk drive, Word Processor, cheap option, only £100.00 ONO. Phone Maidenhead Berks 0628 36020 Eves. Buyer collects.
AMSTRAD portable PPC 640 single drive modem mint condition only £320 Tel, (0233) 629804. Also Atari ST Power Pack software £29.
DEFENDER Of The Crown (ST), Goldrunner (ST) Captain Fizz (Amiga), Obliterator (Amiga) all £5 each Brother HR-5 Serial Printer £47 ONO. Ring (061) 881 5663 After 9.30pm.
ATARI ST £400 worth original software Portable Colour TV joystick, mouse, books, £375 ONO. Те! 0253 886107 Blackpool or Swap for Amiga + monitor.
AMSTRAD 6128 computer, masses of games, colour monitor games include R-Type, After Burner, Dragon Ninja, joystick included. Ask for Neil after 6pm. £300 ОМО 977-5947.
TOSHIBA HXMU901 full size music keyboard + FM-synth cartridge unit with all connectors and manual, fits MSX computers £70 ONO, Tel: 021 502 0507 after Арт.
ST Owners, Attention. For sale. Butz Turbo.
The Ultimate disk to disk copier, Hasn't been opened hence hasn't been used. Price £20.
Phone the NCube Emulator Creater Graham
(0323) 896767.
HAYES Smartmodem 1200. £175 no offers. Complete with PSU & Serial cable for Amiga. Tel (0245) 323357, Ask for Steve.
ATARI MEGA ST2 DTP system as new includ- ing 20mb hard disk. SLM 804 laser printer, Timeworks, Logistix, Superbase Prof + Word Perfect £2250 ONO call Edinburg 343 6665 or 0324 493786 (day).
FOR sale: Text-Craft, The Word Processor for the Amiga A500/1000. RRP £44.95 only £20.00. (Reason for sale: | need the money). Phone Phil on Crediton 3816. After 6pm.
BBC hardware and software for sale send SAE to Shane Il Cadge Rd, Norwich NR5 ВАТ or ring after 6pm. Tel 0603 507 362.
COLOUR monitor VGC with leads for IBM/BBC/Apricot. Mitsibushi 1404 £130 ONO phone; Crowborough 652145. (East Sussex).
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AMIGA 500 ONLY £379.00 INC BATMAN PACK ATARI 520 STFM POWER РАСК...
ST's MIDI POWER
OW COST MIDI 780ARUS ALSO AY. 1 MEG 3.5" DISK DRIVES ST AND AMIGA... ATARI STFM 1 MEG INTERNAL DRIVE UPGRADE . 1 MEG INTERNAL DRIVE FOR AMSTRAD 1512/1640 ‘The above drive is an easy to fit 2nd drive complete with
+ STAR LC 10 COLOUR PRINTER
5 ----0..-03650.90,
16/32 P.D.
PUBLIC DOMAIN FOR THE ATARI ST
SEEPS PPP
Large Selection
* STAR LC10 MONO PRINTER .£169.99 * STAR LC10 COLOUR HEAT TRANSFER RIBBONS - IDEAL : $ FOR PRINTING YOUR OWN T-SHIRTS ETC...........£17.99 Prices start from £1 .00 BLANK DISKS AT AMAZING LOW PRICES
Send A4 SAE with 25p stamp for catalogue or £1.25 for catalogue DISK with extra goodies to: 35 yk er Road, Strood Kent ME2 2DH Tel. 0634 710 788
Please state type of disk (single/double sided)
10 3.5" DS/DD life time guaranteed 10 5.25" DS (per 10)... Bulk buyers please phone for bulk prices
WE STOCK MANY ITEMS NOT LISTED HERE PLEASE PHONE FOR ANY ITEMS NOT LISTED All prices include VAT and P & Р PLEASE NOTE ATARI 8-BIT OWNERS WE SUPPORT YOU
PLEASE PHONE FOR DETAILS
A A PP PP PP OP PP
ICCC CCST TT CCT CT TTT TTT TTS SCT TTTTT IO TTT
36 SHOPPING EXPRESS
MSX computer for sale Yamaha CX-5m Bulitin Digital Synthesiser, Piano Keyboard, Midi Sequencer Cartridge, various games all VGC £150.0NO Tel: 01-519 6425.
Amiga 500 with few games. Tel: (0387) 69442. Ask for Mark.
SPECTRUM software. Robocop, Micro- prose Soccer, Thunder Blade, Run The Gauntlet and Rambo Il, Only £15 the lot. Phone (Warren) (0424) 211196. Ta.
C64 Power Cartridge, useless to me, gimme £10 for it. Andy Brown, 35 Old Abbey Road, North Berwick, East Lothian EH39 4BP. Phone 0620 2285.
SPECTRUM microdrive, two Interface one's cartridges (including) Tasword Word Proces- sor), and a multiface unit. Only £60 ONO
| phone (0424) 211196; Ask for Warren.
BBC Teletext Unit Boxed as new £15. BBC User Guide (hardback), Advanced UG (hard- back), Advanced Disk UG, Advanced Basic ROM UG £5 the set, Phone 0372 58655, AMSTRAD 6128K + Greep Screen Monitor + manuals + books + software + printer lead. £150.00 0733 265091 between 9am and 9pm Bargain
FOR sale: Spectrum, Datacorder, leads, interface Il, games and lots more! All оп good condition. Bought new: £420+ to you £150 ONO (0782) 522590 4pm-6pm week- ends only.
ATARI 1040STFM.with loads of free serious software bargain at £350 inc. leads, mouse mat, keyboard and monitor covers. Tel: 01- 731 0758.
AMSTRAD CPC 6128 – Green screen £150. PCW - Brighton-Belle + Flight Control £10, Strike Force, Harrier £10 others Sin- clair monitor for РРС — £40 NOTTM (0602) 636247.
(C64 Wargames 55,1 Disks Kampfgruppe Mech — Brigade. Battle Cruiser. Storm Across Europe. Panzer Strike, Wargame Construction Set £10 Each £50 the lot. 0765 4642.
CBM 64 Cassette deck, 1571 disk drive, Brother printer software joystick, lightpen, mouse, manuals, books, magazines. VGC #360 ОМО buyer collects. 0787 77842 Sudbury.
BBC B Wargames. Disk Tanks, Sink The
Bismark. Plus Mini Office II. Books Micro
Graphics + Sound. Disk systems for BBC £50 the lot 0765 4642. | PC XT Motherboard. Three times faster than original IBM PC. Comes with 640k, Clock, games port on board. Only £100 ONO Telephone (0256) 840981.
LETTER quality Daisywheel printer, Com modore DPS1101, dozen ribbons, manuals perfect condition £115 phone 0383 510749,
AMSTRAD PC1512, colour, 32 meg hard disk, ІВМ compatible printer (NLQ). Memory upgraded 640K, Joystick + card, V30 Pro cessor. 15 months old. Original boxes. Phone Colin 091 2730881 price £750.
| | SPECTRUM 128k + 3 with Multiface3 joy- stick and over 50 games on tapes and disks. Excellent condition and still boxed. Only £200 Phone 0602 325398.
SWAP Atari S20STFM with printer, loads of | games, 3 joysticks, 60 blank disks, for
GRAFF Audio cassette copiers, mint boxed, 16x speed, three slaves, stereo. (DE-MAG,
etc.) Cost £3,000 offers around £1,200. Tel (0704) 45135 ask for Pete.
0353 663519.
PACE Linnet intelligent modem for ST. All cables and manuals £100. Publishing Part- | ner £50, FSII plus scenery disk £20,
includes manuals and maps. Phone 041 445 6648.
SPECTRUM + 3m very good condition, manual, multiface 3, Tasword and Tas-spell with hundreds of games on tape and disk, £200 phone: Michael Kirk 0438 364722.
BBC Master Series Computer, Pace Dual disk drive and Citizen 120D Printer all in good working order £450.00 no offers. Tel: (0282) 842579. |
BBC master 128K disk drive, mouse, tele- text adapter, excellent condition, boxed £325 ono. Phone Brighton 555740,
C64, C2N, 32+ quality, chart topping
| games, MP5803 piter, books, mags etc only £189! Or will swap for Star LC10 and memory expansion for Amiga ono a bargain! 0428 735845.
COMMODORE 64, C2N cassette, 1571 disk drive, Brother printer, software, mouse, light pen, manuals books, magazines VGC cost £1200 sell £350 ONO 0787 77842 Suffolk
ATARI ST 1Mb with twin Cumana 1Mb. disk drives and assorted software £360. Also used blank discs 55p each, call Allen on 0532 774278 (Leeds).
СВМ 64 data cassette, joystick, keyboard and games software £100. Call Caroline evenings on Leics, Tel: 0533 750524.
SPECTRUM + with Interface 1, 2 Micro-
drives, 19 Cartridges also Multiface 1. Any offers must sell cheap, Tel: Windsor (0753) | 862447. |
SHADOW of the Beast £15, Batman the Movie £10, both Amiga, Phone James on 021 476.2935.
AMSTRAD DD-1 double sided 31/2’ disk drive plus 10 original games £80 or will separate. Tel Mansfield (0623) 863338,
AMSTRAD 1512 PC DD MM twin drives, | mouse, monitor, lots of software a bargain | at £350. Tel: 041 339 2200 ask for Mr Fahim. FOR SALE Amiga original ‘Continental Cir- cus’ £10 mint condition (have completed) AMSTRAD CPC 464 with colour monitor, Tel 0260 276574 after 7pm ask for Robert, disk drive, speakers, joysticks, lightpen, manuals, books, loadsa games and some disks £250. Tel: 0484 721991.
COMMODORE 8023P printer with man- ual £150 ono. Telephone 021 358 5418 between 8pm and 10pm. COMMODORE 64/128 CN2 many games, software business books, mags etc, Action Replay MKIII £1850 ono or swap Amiga. Tel 0926 335981, any time
AMIGA originals, Combat Pilot, Falcon, Rocket Ranger, £14 each. Crazy Cars, Mansells Grand Prix, Outrun, GeeBee, Air Rally, £8 each. Plus postage. Tel 0258 880394.
CAMBRIDGE 788 Lap top computer under twelve months old, excellent condi- tion, original box £150 ono. Contact Ely
COMMODORE AMIGA A500
BATMAN MOVIE PACK | BATMAN MOVIE + PACK Amiga A500, Workbench, Mouse, Extras Disk, Tutorial ‘Disk, Owners Handbook, Basic Manual, TV Modulator, Mouse Mat, Deluxe Paint 2. F18 Interceptor, New Zealand Story, Batman Movie Game, Ten Blank DSDD Disks, Disk Box holds 100 Disks, Vinyl Cover, Microswitch, Joystick
ONLY ONLY 250095 £369.95 £389.95
ALL AMIGA PRICES INCLUDE VAT, FITTED PLUG AND DELIVERY
STOP PRESS NOW SHIPPING ATARI 520STE MACHINES ATARI 520STE POWER PACK A
Atari 5205ТЕМ, Mouse, Owners Handbook, First Basic, First Music, Business Organiser Software,
20 Great Games,
Atari CX40 Joystick ONLY £359.95
INCLUDING VAT AND DELIVERY Plus FREE! with any of the above Atari Packs a Superb Software Starter Pack comprising: WordProcessor, Spreadsheet, Spelichecker, Word Count Program, Neochrome, Mono Monitor Emulator, Database, Towers of Hanoi Game, Virus Killer, Sensori Game, Fruit Machine Game.
PERIPHERALS
CUMANA CAX 354 5М124 АМІСА MONO
DISK DRIVE MONITOR £89.95 £109.95
MEGA PACK
Amiga A500, Workbench, Mouse, Extras Disk, Tutorial Disk, Owners Handbook, Basic Manual, TV Modulator, Mouse Mat, ikari Warriors, Beyond The Ice Palace, Battleships, Buggy Boy
Xenon, Captain Bloor Arkanoid 2, Bomb Jack, Crazy Cars, Thundercats, Live and Let Die, SpaceHarrier, Joystick
Amiga А500, Workbench, Mouse, Extras Disk, Tutorial Disk, Owners Handbook, Basic Manual, TV Modulator, Mouse Mat, Deluxe Paint 2. F18 Interceptor, New Zealand Story, Batman Movie Game
EXPLORER PACK
Atari 5205ТЕМ, Mouse, Owners Handbook, Metacomco Basic Rev D, ‘Sourcebook + Tutorial, Ranarama Game
ONLY £279.95
POWER PACK B
Atari 520STFM, Mouse, Owners. Handbook, First Basic, First Music, Business Organiser. Software, 20 Great Games,
Alan CX40 Joystick, Vinyl Dust Cover, Twin Joystick Extend
Lead. Disk Box for 100 Disks, Ten Blank DS/DD Disks, Second Joystick ONLY £389.95
STARLC10 STARLCIO ATARI COLOUR PRINTER
PRINTER £209.95
CITIZEN 120D PRINTER
MAILCENTA 1MB
£169.95 £138.00
ALL PERIPHERAL PRICES INCLUDE VAT, DELIVERY AND ANY LEADS NECESSARY я TO CONNECT ТО YOUR COMPUTER (PLEASE STATE)
MAIL-CENTA mpbell Street, Belper, Derby. DES 1AP. Tel: 0773 826830 VAT Howeve ers u
DIN
ADVENTURE HELPLINE
Do you play computer adventures? Have you ever been faced with a seemingly impossible situation?
WE GAN HELP
1666
T. M. E Plc 10b Hulme Hall Road. Manchester M15 4LY
Calls charged at 25p min "cheap" rate/38p at all other times
ATARI POWER PACK £349.99 520 STFM INCLUDING 23 TITLES
Games include Super Hang-On, Outrun, R-type, Afterburner, Pacmania + 15 more. Also included, First Basic, First Music + Organiser. Plus, for a limted period - Hyperdraw, Hyperpaint, Borodino + £50 voucher.
ATARI 520STFM EXPLORER PACK ...£279.09
ATARI 1040 STFM + PRO-12. .....£439.99
ATARI MEGA 1 ...£529.00
ATARI SM124 MONO MONITOR when ordered with any of above
MUSIC AND SOUND
AMIGA. st Aegis Sonix V.2
Steinberg Pro-24 Aegis AudioMaster Ii C-Lab Creator. Amas ; C-Lab Notator Future Sound. EZ Track Pl ro Sound Designer Gold PAE Eidersoft Midi Interface
addis Datel Midi Interface Super Conductor Music X Out Now! Pro Sound Designer Dr T's KCS.
T Replay 4 Dr T's Midi Recording
euin Studio ..... Deluxe Music
£249.95 £289.99 £399.99 £49.95 £199.99 £39.99 £49.99 £64.99
£189.99 £159.99
£52.95 £59.95
GAMES SOFTWARE ST SOFTWARE AMIGA SOFTWARE
Batman the Movie.
Battle Squadron
Beach Volley Ball. Continental Circus
Dogs of War
Falcon Mission Disk.
Grand Prix Master.
Keef the Thiet
Kenny Dalglish Soccer Maich Kick Off à Kick Off Extra Time
Never Mind
North and South
Passing Shot
Populous.
Power Drift
Pro Tennis Tour......
Robocop
RVF Honda
Shadow of the Beast Shufflepuck Cafe
Space Quest III.
Sporting Triangles.
Strider
Swords of Twilight Switchblade
Stunt Car Racer. сҮ Super League Soccer.
The Games (Summer Edition)
АРВ... Batman the Movie Battlechess
Continental Circus
Dogs of War
Falcon
Falcon Mission Disk
Ferrari Formula One Fiendish Freddie.
Grand Prix Master
Hard Driving
Indiana Jones the Adventure Kenny Dalglish Soccer Match Kick Off
Kick Off Extra
North and Sout
Passing Shot
Power Drift
Pro Tennis Tour.
Quest for the Time Bird.
Red Storm Rising
Robocop
RVF Honda
Shufflepuck Cate
Stunt Car Racer
Super Wonder Boy Switchblade ...
The Games (Summer Edition) TV Sports Football
MONITORS
ATARI SM 124.
ATARI SC 1224 COMMODORE 10845 PHILIPS 8833
PRINTERS
STAR LC10 inc Cable +2 ribbons ....£189.99 STAR LC10 colour inc Cable £215.00 £139.99
£17.99 £17.99 £17.99 £17.99 £13.99 £13.99 £13.99 £17.99 £13.99 £13.99 89.99 £13.99 £17.99 £13.99 £17.99 217.99 £17.99 £13.99 £17.99 £26.99 £13.99 £17.99 £13.99 £17.99 £17.99 £13.99 £17.99 £17.99 £17.99
HARD DRIVES
THIRD COAST, ATARI, SUPRA AND COMMODORE A590, VORTEX AVAILABLE. PLEASE CALL FOR
* BEST PRICES *
CUMANA 1 MEG 3.5" for ST. CUMANA 1 MEG 35" for Amiga NEC 35" for ST
NEC 35" for AMIGA.
РОМ 5.25" for ST
STAR LC 24/10 inc Cable CUMANA 5.25” for AMIGA.
— — Ч
SHOPPING EXPRESS 7g
ме есері EXPRESS. Voucnens
С AMIGA
AMIGA 500 BAT PACK
Includes: AMIGA 500 with mouse, manual & leads BATMAN - The Movie New Zealand Story F-16 Interceptor Deluxe Paint II Plus mouse mat and Dust Cover
£389.99
inc. VAT & Delivery by courier
ART & ANIMATION
AMIGA ST Lights, Camera, Action Degas Elite Zoetrope Cyber Paint 2 Aegis Videoscape 3D Cyber Studio CAD 3D .
Comic Setter.
Mini-Gen (Genlock] Spectrum 512...... X ) Quantum Paint Pro.
£47.95 £79.95 £109.99 £44.99 .99.99 £56.99 £59.95 £69.99
£19.95 £54.95 £69.95 ..£44.95 £32.95
Moviesetter. Deluxe Paint Ill Photon Paint 11
INCLUDING LABELS. Add £5.50 for 80 Capacity Disk Box when ordering disks. | ог £4.50 when ordering 50 or more Disks
All prices include VAT. Please send Cheques/PO made payable to:- |
TREBLE H COMPUTING | DEPT NCE, CROMER HOUSE, | CAXTON WAY, STEVENAGE,
HERTS. SG1 2DF
ж CREDIT CARD HOTLINE: 0438 361738 х FAX: 0438 361738
Callers welcome Monday - Friday 10.00am. - 6.00pm. If you do send cash please send it Registered. All Goods are sent First Class/Registered. Please add £3.00 for outside U.K. Large Orders ie. Amigas, ST, Monitors etc are always sent by courier. Please add £6,00, if you require Next Day Courier Delivery on other items.
‘All prices are correct at time of going to Press, and аге subject to change without prio notice
MOUSE and cheese for CBM 64 £15. Phone James on 021 476 2935.
AMSTRAD PCW software - knife+ disk sector editor for file recovery and planit, both £12.50 each ring 0602 505079.
SPECTRUM Plus Two computer, two joy stick interface over £150 of software and games. Tel 0302 857685 and ask for John £110. Please ring in evening.
BBC-B 1.205 data recorder, manual, books and many original games, Excellent condition £110 ono. Phone Robertson 021 355 1295 (Sutton Coldfield).
IBM clone mon + HD, 2 months olds £625 оло. Yamaha organ PSR70 midi compatible £375 ono 286 Motherboard 640K Ram 3225,00. Phone John Evenings 0895 631184.
SPECTRUM +2 with plenty of games and a few interfaces and all the gubbins. Must go £120 ono. Phone me on 01-524 2446 ask for Danny.
ACORN Electron with plus one, tape recorder, loads of games, books and maga- zines £70. Phone Angela after 5pm on Flitwick (0525) 713408.
AMSTRAD CPC modem RS232 interface, boxed, £70. 2nd 3' disk drive complete £45. Both in excellent working order. Both for £100. Tel 0472 814085 evenings.
IT 1-2-3 Modem v21/v22/v23 full and half duplex. Under a month old. £120 gen uine reason for sale. Call 01-291 3593 after 6pm Richard.
C64, 2 CZN tape decks, Action replay MKS cart. 2 joysticks, approx 200 games. All this for £100. Call Andrew on Southend
|
(0702) 467825 after 4pm.
AMIGA A500 512K memory expansion board with clock as per A501. Brand new £75 ono. Tel Nigel 0923 777056.
SPECTRUM users Alphacom 32 line printer, little used with 3 rolls printing paper £25 ono. Phone 0695 574801 - Ormskirk lanes after брт.
AMIGA users! Rendale 8806 broadcast quality Genlock, plus RGB combiner (for
colour frame - grabbing) for А2000, £550. Cherry Graphics Tablet (A2) unused, £350.
Ring Eric 0642 850759.
SPECTRUM 128K+3 stil in box extended warranty, plus extras £200. Also Spectrum 48K with printer and many games
£80. Tel Atherton (0942) 874264.
AMSTRAD 6128 with colour monitor, DMP 2000 printer, Protext, Word Design, Trivial Pursuit and other games £420. Tel (0748) 811781 after 6.30pm.
HAPPY discovery cartridge for all Atari ST's will back up any of your disks as new, boxed was £170.00 only £115. Tel 0253 46110 will swap for Amiga hardware.
12 ST originals, Jinxter, UMS, Gauntlet Il, Backlash, Outrun, Spidertronic, Deflector, Ikari Warriors, Time & Magik, Skyfox, Return to Genesis, Defender Crown. All these for £40 tel 0928 560306.
ACORN Master 128 as new £280. Tel 061 486 9457.
ATARI 800XL, Double Sided Double den sity disk drive, books DOS3, all leads joy sticks, many games free, recently serviced £200, Tel Redditch 501250 anytime ask for
1 Gary.
|. the lot. Hatfield 0707 268794.
ATARI ST flair paint for sale only £10 | hardly used. Phone John on 01-546 0993 also GFA reboot Camp book for £7.00as — | new.
IDEAL Xmas present games on disk and | tape bro CPC64 also freeze frame MKII £50 |
AMSTRAD CPC6128, mono, joystick, manuals, books, games and serious soft
| ware, as new. Ideal for Xmas, £225 ono.
DMP2000 printer £100. Telephone 0443 672900.
BBC B issue 7, DFS DS/DD 40/80 disk drive, ROM board with 16K sideway ram modem, disks roms, mags £340 will split.
| Tel 0639 886525. |
| Sell for £600 ono. Tel 0703 692941 eves.
BBC B with DFS and 40/80T dual drive #3005 worth of software, leads and manu als included. Only £395 ono. Will split. Beeb | software and mags from 50р. Те! 01-551 3030 (Vinay).
CBM 64 disk drive C2N joystick, loads апо | loads of games, mags all boxed and all leads supplied. Worth 10005. Bargain £195 (swap Atari ST) 061 832 5809.
MASTER 128K, Taxan Super Vision Three, dual BOT Plinth disk drive
256K Ramdisc, AMX Mouse, and Super Art, Roms, manuals, utilities, games and more 01-263 0394 after 6pm.
AMSTRAD 6128 for sale colour monitor, | multiface Il, mags, £400 of software, both tape and disk, both games and business. Excellent Christmas present worth £850.
COMMODORE 64 games for sale, Titles
| including Barbarian, Red Led, Sentinel,
Cholo, Starglider, originally worth £300. Will
sell for £100. Won't separate. Contact мәк | on 0233 631942 after 4pm.
ARNOR's model universe (disk) CPC 6128 boxed with instructions, £12. Phone 01-688 3950.
CBMSO0 Amiga Ram expansion with Switch and clock, just 2 months old &65 ono. Ring 061 881 5663 ask for Ahmad
PHOTON Paint on Amiga unopened, ring 051 648 6863 evenings, price £15. Also Atari Basic never used £5.
SEIKOSHA GP 100A printer little used, great for first time user, very clean. Phone 05438 3804 any time only £30 Staffs area.
APPLES and Profile hard disk, Visicalc etc £250 also Apple Il and hard disk £200. Peter Gibson 01-641 1345.
ATARI 520 STFM 1Mb drive with software and joystick, mint condition £220. Tel 0908 377029 evening or weekends Bucks.
APPLE | 1c, monitor stand, mouse, sec- опа drive, manuals, cables, dustcovers and
|. all the software you'll ever need. £275. Tel
01-262 6290.
1 ST games, Battletech, Ballistix, Manhunter,
Mill 2.2, Autoduel, Rings of Zilfin, Firezone, War in Middle Earth, Heroes of the Lance, many more, ring (01) 318 7309 London SE13,
AMSTRAD DMP2000 printer for sale. Parallel interface, NLQ print quality a bar- gain at only £80, Includes all manuals and cable for Amstrad CPC computers. Tel Derek on (0291) 424526.
ATARI 520 ST FM boxed mint condition £195 ono plus disks 051 648 8220.
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ENTER THE WORLD OF DTP with EASY TEXT PLUS budget DTP for any ATARI ST, med and Supports 9 pin, 24 pin and laser printe: Import 1st Word text, import DEGAS clip art. so piis 6 line styles, 3 line endings; right, left, centred and full a Justification (with global kerning). User I fined; leading, frame margins, etc. Comes with illustrated User Guide.
Only 19.95 incl P&P and ONLY* from zzSoft, 3 Riverdale House, Mytholm Close, Hebden Bridge, West Yorks, HX7 6DP 0422 845528 АП credit cards 0782 335650 Enquiries welcome. Ad created with EASY TEXT+ * Plus selected PD libraries.
Sere US at THE 16 віт SHOW, VICTORIA SoFTVILLE PD's STAND
A.B Computer Supplies
niga A500 Bat Pack inc. modulator, Batman р Paint II, F18 and New Zealand Story. Amiga 2000 XT Pack inc. 1084s col. monitor, Bridgeboard and 20MB PC DOS Hard Disk....£1349 Commodore A501 Ram Expansion 512K .. Commodore 1084s Colour Monitor........ Ситапа CAX354 on/off switch, daisychain . Branded Sony 3.5" DSDD per box of 10 .. Y All Prices Include VAT and Delivery U.K. Please send Cheque/P.O. to:
A.B. Computer Supplies, 103a Shellfield Road, Marshside, Southport, Merseyside PR9 9UL. Tel: 0704-213544.
£369
£112
т
vhounds morning,
takes a few minutes
„ RUNS ON 51520 & 10405 AND MEGAS
+ SS/DS FLOPPY /HARD DISK COMPATIBLE
* MONOCHROME OR COLOUR
MONITOR/TV
USES GEM FACILITIES.
FULL, PRINTER SUPPORT
COMPREHENSIVE MANUAL
ON SCREEN INFORMATION
UNIQUE ARCHIVING SYSTEM
PROGRAM SELF ANALYSIS
READY RECKONER FOR Al
POPULAR MULTIPLE BETS
oP DOG
THE PROGRAM THE BOOKIES WANT TO BAN!!
TOP DOG is a Greyhound racing analysis program thi ST owners to analyse any Grevhound race the chances of selecting the winner. Up t selections have won with a return of 98» on level stake bet DOG uses information from the daily sporting press and data entry analyse one гасе or a complete meeting. ТОР DOG's special archiving system Viewing or amendment as well as providing an assessment of how well the program is working for various race tricks or types of гасе
AND THAT'S NOT ALL - JUST LOOK AT TOP DOG'S OTHER FEATURES
TOP DOG AVAILABLE ONLY FROM FORECAST SOFTWARE - SEND CHEQUE/PO TO:
FORECAST SOFTWARE, NCE Dept, 60 THORNHILL ROAD,
LLANISHEN, CARDIFF, S. GLAM. CF4 6PF
Trade enquiries welcome
^
Did vou know that Greyhound racing accounts for the largest amounts of bets after horse racing. Now there ts i available that will enable you to make LOADSAMC апа evening six days а week every week of
unique program ү from betting
1 will enable and dramatically increase 60") or more of TOI! DOG ror
allows you to recall any race for
EASY DATA ENTRY
ALL GREYHOUND TRACKS
RESULTS FACILITY
CLEAR CHOICE OF
SELECTION
ALL MAJOR ASPECTS FORM ANALYSED (NMINGS. GOING. PAST FORM)
* INDIVIDUAL ASPECTS OF FORM CAN BE VIEWED
* BETTING LOG
+ FORECAST & TRICASTS
FOR ONLY £49.95 YOU CAN MAKE TOP DOG MAKE MONEY FOR YOU
ECIAL NEW YEAR OFFER * * All Customers Registered on the Top Dog Hotline 0222 766905 Will receive £10 Discount.
ATARI STE
POWER PACK INC 20 GAMES, FIRST BASIC, ORGANISER, FIRST MUSIC, JOYSTICK.
£359.00 STAR LC10 MONO
9 PIN PRINTER INC LEAD
OTHER HARDWARE AND PERIPHERALS
COMMODORE 1084P COLOUR MONITOR..£229.00 |CUMANA 1 MEG 3.5 AMIGA/ST EXTERNAL DRIVE. OLIVETTI DM 105S (ONE YEAR ON SITE WARANTEE).. CITIZEN SWIFT. 24 PIN PRINTER COLOUR OPTION..
MOUS рт, ZEALAND STORY £375.00
£14 EXTRA WITH 10 STAR PACK
STAR LC10 COLOUR 9 PIN PRINTER INC LEAD £209.00
SOFTWARE 20% orc pee AMD [АЗАМ GAMES! LEAST 1 OFF ALL AMIGA AND ATARI ST MONITOR COVERS: FTWARE:
SENATOR 1 MEG 3.5 EXTERNAL D/D £79.00 FOR AMIGA
ure LEEDS 637988
| SHOPPING EXPRESS 39 | F IRST C HOICE C омро PED [ _UNIT $, ARMLEY PARK COURT, STANNINGLEY ROAD, LEEDS їзє zar
DISKS 100% ERROR E GUARANTEE £6.90 FOR 10 DISKS £31.90 FOR 50 DISKS £59.90 FOR 100 DISKS
PHILIPS 8833 COLOUR MONITOR INC. LEAD FOR AMIGA OR STE £229.00
ACCESSORIES
JOYSTICK PORT (DOUBLE) EXTENSION LEAD...
АВ
235333223
OPEN 9.00AM TO 5.30PM MONDAY TO
VISA
SATURDAY OPEN SUNDAYS 10.00AM TO 3.00PM
OPEN THURSDAY 'TILL 8PM
Call into our showroom or order by telephone for a fast delivery tel: 0532 63798
please make cheques payable to First Choice
ФӘ A500 BAT РАСК *
A500, TV Modulator, Deluxe Paint Il. Interceptor. New Zealand Story, and Batman - The Movie
жжжжж жжжжжЖ
A500 BAT PACK + |[ATARI 520 STE This Pack as above Plus Now in Stock
1: Ar t Mo Рае 4: В в Power Pack £359 megas, 2: Art of Chess, 3: Barbarian, 4: Buggy Boy
5: Ikari Warriors 6: Insanity Flight, 7: Mercenary Comp, Explorer Pack £279
Includes:
8: Terrorpods, 9: Thundercats, 10: Wizball Hyperpaint,
Hyperdraw, Borodino. ll Rom Upgrade Upgrade your 1.2 Kickstart New 1.3 Roms now available.
COMMODORE 1084 PHILIPS CM 8833 ! All Monitors Include Leads!
PRINTERS
STAR LC 10 MONO £159.99 PRINTER RIBBONS
ALL MAKES AVAILABLE, LOW PRICE STARLC10COL. £199.99|| єс; STAR LC-10 MONO £4 49.
[ ALL OUR PRINTER PRICES ARE INCLUSIVE OF LEADS NEC 1 MEG 3.5" EXT. DRIVE, Low Power, Throughport, Slimline, Only £79.95 ] ЕЧ
UNIVERSAL MONITORTV STANDS, LOCKABLE BASE.......ONLY £1 6.00 | MARCONI RB2 € TRACKER BALL ST AMIGA.....£52.00 | =
Please note, ай our prices include VAT & Courier Delivery. АТ ems despatched within Zi hrs, dependent on availabilty & cheque clearance, prices Subject to change without por notice at any tine. E & ОЕ Personal callers welcome.
EEC LTD SUPPLIERS OF Sinclair QL COMPUTERS & PRINTERS QLs FROM £90, NEW PRICE LIST
BACKUP with P, SUPPLY, LEADS & SOFTWARE ONLY ЈМ ROM i90 Keep it as insurance, or for Networking Cheaper than changing to another system JS ROM £100
IRANTY TV LEAD. QL Software 2.3. Also complete bound JM ROM £120 User Guide for the QL, Superbasic & the Software; Quill-Word Processor, Abacus - Spreadsheet, Archive - For records, Easel - Business Graphics. JS ROM £135 Including FREE JOYSTICK if requested at time of order
FREE QUANTA MEMBERSHIP WORTH £141 CUSTOMERS BUYING A COMPLETE KIT GET A FREE 1ST YEAR MEMBERSHIP OF QUANTA WHICH ISSUES A REGULAR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER, ACCESS TO OVER 400 PROGRAMS AND REGIONAL WORKSHOPS WHERE MATTERS OF INTEREST, SEE NEW , BUY SPARES AND ENJOY SEMINARS.
QL Software 2.35 £15 £15
Complete User Guide QL Power Supply Unit Microdrive Uni £10 — JM ROMS
its Working P/C Boards JM £45 Joysticks QL ics Centronics Interface. QL Serial Printer Leads £12 Microdrive Carts. Microdrive Carts 10 for £18 SEIKOSHA GP100A. CENTRONICS. 80 COL., 50 CPS, GRAPHICS, TRACTOR FEED. ESPECIALLY SUITABLE AS A SECOND PRINTER FOR LISTING & PRINTOUTS. [CENTRONICS INTERFACE £20, IF BOUGHT WITH PRINTER STAR NL10 DOT MATRIX 120 CPS М.О 30 CPS TRACTOR & SHEET FEED WITH QL OR SPECTRUM INTERFACE 1LEAD. d У C, ITOH DAISYWHEEL 20 CPS SERIAL WIDE CARRIAGE UP TO 172 [CHARACTERS INCLUDING QL OR SPECTRUM LEAD с £140
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TERMS CWO, ACCESS or VISA Minimum order £9. P&P £6.00 for Printers & QL, Other items £3.00, Overseas enquire. Fax No: 0753 - 887149 кч EEC LTD, NCE 2, 18-21 MISBOURNE HOUSE, CHILTERN HILL, jm) CHALFONT ST PETER, BUCKS, 519 9UE TEL: 0753 888866
40 SHOPPING EXPRESS
Continuous Stationery Specialists for
P F l Business Forms — Single & Multi-Part Sets A N Letterheads — Mailing Labels N r Single or Multi-Colour and Tints Е Artwork Production Facilities Available F о Quick Service – Generally Less Than 7 Days О For Example :- 1,000 letterheads ,11" x 9 '/2" on 80gram L Bond, one colour:- £50 +V.A.T. (£12.00 /1,000 after first) For further information and samples, phone,(till D 7.00p.m.- any day), fax, write or Email. D P
Loughborough. LE12 8UJ
olink MAG37342
ALL COMPUTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE WANTED FOR CASH OR EXCHANGE | NOTHING REFUSED!! 01 727 0424 zi
COMPUTER REPAIRS
Specialists in Home and Business Computers, all makes repaired. ATARI, AMSTRAD. COMMODORE, SPECTRUM. SINCLAIR etc. Atari Approved Service Centre.
We also repair Printers, Monitors, Disk Drives etc.
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A.M.C., UNIT 4, WESTON ROAD INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, WARKS, CV37 0AH 0789 292269
igen PD Softwar blic Domain & User-Supported Software for the IBM PC Compatibles C1 O5 шс a sie sie |
Per Disk (5 1/4") £19 £2.50 £8.00* £12.00 £15.00** £22.50
Phone or send an A5 SAE for your FREE Catalogue of one of the Country's largest and bes! documented
Unlike other Libraries, we don't have any "hidden" costs, like VAT, P&P, Membership Fees, 0898 phone num- bers etc. .
The Price You See із. The Price You Pay
5 Includes FREE Library Case "ч Includes 2 FREE Library Cases
Blank Disks: 5 1/4" DS/DD £9.50 for 25 3 1/2" 05/00 £10.50 for 10
Disk Head Cleaning Kits £3.50 (State 5 1/4 1/2")
PO BOX 722, SWINDON, SN2 6YB. 0793 611270 & 061 748 4274
NOVA brings you.....A new concept in Amiga PD - VALUE
| P FAST, PROFFESIONAL cy AND FRIENDLY AMIGA PD SERIVCE
HIGH QUALITY PUBLIC DOMAIN DISKS
£2.00 Ess
Two Disk Catalogue £2.00
We'll get any PD disk for you - АТ NO EXTRA CHARGE NO EXTRA FEES - Write for overseas postage ALL Disks TRUE BRANDED SONY Libraries available (Fish, TBAG, AGAlron etc.) Latest demos, animations etc Discount Hardware/Software/Disks etc. ж, Free Helpline Prices start at £0000
E nova, 30 Parsons 9, Bonbury, Oron OXI6 ВУ "zr (0292242029
Write or phone for your FREE list quoting the name of your computer
OLD AND DISUSED SOFTWARE Cash paid for any software (tapes - discs - cartridges) For all makes of machine SAE: For details or send software for full quote
INTERNATIONAL SOFTWARE GROUP 104 Church Street, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs. Tel: 0782 747174
ELECTRIC PD ORDER
AMIGA Superbase Personal Il . MCC Assembler Devpac version 2 Kindwords 2
Prices include VAT and UK Postage & Packaging. Europe - add 70p per
We also do games, business software. Educational software for the Amstrad, Atari, ST, Commodore 64, Amiga, IBM PC and Spectrum Also stocked are games for Nintendo, the PC engine and Sega.
game. Outside Europe add £1 per game. Cheques and P.O's to:
ELECTRIC P.D. 7 Park Road, Haltwhistle, Northumberland, NE49 9AR TEL: (0434) 321942
COMPUTER REPAIRS
ATARI ST, COMMODORE AMIGA Damaged or wanted computers bought for cash. Sting public Domain Software. Tel: 051 546 4640
For repairs and other services Future Electrical & Instruments Services. 10 Weber Road, Merseyside L33 7SW Tel: 051 548 6940 or 0695 25881 (evenings)
NOT ALL PUBLIC DOMAIN LIBRARIES ARE THE SAME
Thousands of ST users already know, so why don't you discover the difference and send for the latest free catalogue from Goodman Enterprises.
Now firmly established as one of the leading suppliers of Public Domain and Shareware for the Atari ST. Send a first class stamp or telephone for further details.
GOODMAN ENTERPRISES 16 Conrad Close, Meir Hay Estate Longton, Stoke-on-Trent ST3 1SW
[es 0782-335650
Mike Jervis, 19 Portree Drive, Rise Park, Nottingham NG5 БОТ Tel: 0602 274369
MAKE YOUR MICRO EARN !
Yes making money with your micro becomes incidental when you know how. Your micro is, if only you knew it, a gold mine. The size and make is irrelevant. Make the initial effort NOW by starting your own HOME BASED BUSINESS | This may be the most important move you will ever make!
REMEMBER: You'll never get rich by digging someone else's "ditch".
playing games. The benefits are many and varied. Full or part time. For FREE details send S.A.E. to:
31 PILTON PLACE (NCE 13) KING AND QUEEN STREET WALWORTH, LONDON SE17 1DR
A500's + £54.05 FIXED PRICE REPAIR + ST's
Includes parts, labour, full service and V.A.T., 12 month warranty, 7 day turnaround Same day service also available Subject to our terms of trade. Copies available on request. All our engineers are fully experienced іп 16 bit technology Don't risk damaging your ST. Ask about our all inc. ram and drive
Tel: 061-747 3185 Fax: 061-747 0515
D/Line in Facility. metres in length.) £2.49 e £2.09 m Archie £2.99 Prices include VAT + Carri; All cheques ma музе to SPHINX SOFTWARE Sphinx Software, Erw Fynydd, Carmel, LLanelli, Dyfed, SA14 7SG.
We can supply most computer related cables and plugs please write for details
Av ail able For:- Atari ST (Not with Monitor). Amstrad CPC Serie: CBM Amig:
£3.99 £2.99 £2.99
SO YOU COLLECT ST DEMOS, DO YOU? The Demo Club
s Free Membership E Virus Free * Demo Disks , Fast Service * Source code Library * Helpline TEX, Carebears, ST Squad, Poltergeists, Lost Boys. S SAS and many, many more! Disks from only £1.50 Send a large SAE for our FREE catalogue
23 Alma Place, Spilsby, Lincs, PE23 5LB. Tel: (0790) 53741 after 6pm.
EXPRESS COMPUTERS
SPECIALISTS IN SECOND USER IBM
COMPATIBLE COMPUTERS & EQUIPMENT € PRINTERS 6 PERIPHERALS®
© HARD DISKS € COMPONENTS® @ NETWORK INSTALLATIONS®
@MAINTENANCE®@ CALL NOW FOR YOUR BEST POSSIBLE DEAL PLEASE CONTACT ANDREW OR CHRIS
(0604) 35519
COMPUTERS & HARDWARE ALSO PURCHASED FOR CASH
FREE PD CATALOGUE ON DISK
(Please state Atari ST or Amiga) When you send a blank disk and SAE to:
RIVERDENE PDL 63 Wintringham Way, Purley on Thames, pom). Berkshire, RG8 8BH. Telephone: (0734) 428492 ‘ax: (0734) 451239
AMIABLE PUBLIC DOMAIN
nmark Square, Aldershot, Hampshire, GU12 4TP. Tel: 025
Send £1.00 or blank disk and Ше ER" return postage & packaging for disk catalogue & virus killer.
Cheque and postal orders to D.Burns.
Magnetic North
Amiga A500 includes Workbench, Mouse, Manuals etc ONLY £339.00 inc. VAT
ATARI 520 £265.00 Public Domain for ST, Amiga and IBM 2.99 each Prices include VAT and next day delivery 46 Cookson Street ES Blackpool [f мело | We Accept | { ОЗЫ | FY13ED "| tei Tel: (0253) 22637
Callers welcome by appointment
THE ULTIMATE SERVICE.
JUST RING 0898 36 24 36.
DARE YOU LISTEN? (25р/38р рег min)
when was the last time your mail order put a smile on your face?
Why is our many customers praise our excelent service and continue to shop wih us ? Probably because our reat prices help. We ofer the best in mar order wi a service atis beyond comprehension 3,5- High Verbalim Sony bulk disks: £15.80 - 20, £23.80 - 30, 136.0 50,7000: 100, 3,5 Std; 720K (Kao) bulk diska: £6.90 10, £13.50 -20, £20.10 - 30, £31.40 - 50, £55.99 - 100, 10 Sony/VerbatimvTDK (with free disk) /t DS/DD Branded boxed: £11.50 Inc. 3.5 80 capacity diskblank: £6.50 (please add £2.50 to cover РАР Й та By Bc ak ‘box: £30.99. 50 3.5 disks with 80 cap. box: £39.99. 5.2 т Y
: 2290. Twin Joystick extenders; £4.80. Dust covers (Atari S? Cumana 3.5 1 Mb external drive: £87. £68.95. C-Lab Creator: £260.00.
prod 20 explorer: £200.00. Alarí 1040 business pack: £438.00, Atari
pack: £529.00 jack with monitor: £898.00. Mega laserpack: 1580.00. All Atari's include the limited period only. Phone for best Amig: Atari megatlle 30Mb HardDisk: 1499.00. Star LC10 Printer: £168.00. Sel 'SP 180: £139.00. Epson LX400: 79.00. Cameron B&W handy scanner type 2: £195.00. Vidi ST: £96.00. Many more products can be obtained for you. all brand new. PUBLIC DOMAIN DISKS FROM £1.60. SEND £1.00 FOR DISK CATALOGUE OR AN S.A.E. DISK. it is our policy to offer the best pricing and service to our current and new customers, so where possible we will offer you the best price й that is what you want. If it isnt listed above, that does not mean we cannot get it, please ne and ask for Paul. If we don't advertise in the latest edition of this magazine, then it doesn't mean we are not fere. Just pick up your phone. Personal calls unti 12 midnight. AI above prices include VAT and PAP with 3 day detven (пен day add £6.00) and come complete wih our no nonsense warranties. Al rade and government le. Best ever prices on ай your hardware/software requirements not listed above. Send large SAE for prices. Overseas add 20% Io total cost to cover shipping. Phone Paul now or send in with Cheque/PO/Citibank or Access Visa/Connect your order (usual details) for immediate despatch to.
joy of life arts, (NCE), 45 elswick, skelmersdale, lancashire, wn8 6bx. telephone: 0695 32382 (24 hrs).
42 SHOPPING EXPRESS
EVEN MORE FOR YOUR MONEY
A500 BATMAN PACK -
MOUSE TV MODULATOR
AMIGA MONITOR/ TV TELEFUNKEN MR150
Superb monitor quality picture.
157 FST COMPACT MONITOR STYLE TV/MONITOR FULL INFRA RED REMOTE CONTROL -
le««««««««««
Fast courier delivery - add £5.00.
1.3 WORKKBENCH
AMIGA BASIC
BATMAN THE MOVIE INTERCEPTOR
NEW ZEALAND STORY DELUXE PAINT II. MOUSE MAT
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£379.99 POST FREE
AMIGA EXTERNAL DRIVE
3.5" 880K (FORMATTED THROUGH PORT
ON/OFF SWITCH
SLIMLINE STEEL CASE
UK MADE WITH NEC MECHANISM
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A
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1.8 Wkbench required. 1MEG DRAMS ONLY £45 / 512K (CHIPS)
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All computers, monitors, & printers are covered by our free warranty service. 20day new replacement + collection of faulty item. Thereafter, free collection, speedy repair & return by Courier.
500 512K
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compatible: with
PLEASE PHONE FOR FREE 40pg AMIGA ‘PRODUCTS CATALOGUE. Includes printers, monitors, disk drives, software, leads, Midi faces, samplers, books, Міпіатр Stereo speaker systems, replacement mice, ribbons, disks & disk boxes etc etc.
SCART SOCKET FOR COMPUTERS / VCRs etc TELESCOPIC OR EXTERNAL AERIAL
HEADPHONE SOCKET & EXTENSION SPEAKER SOCKET
FREE COMPUTER LEAD - state computer.
ONLY £249.99 inc vat & delivery. Fast courier delivery - айа £5.00
Why pay more for a dedicated monitor when you can buy this 15° FST mains portable tv with full feature remote control & scart socket for direct (no modulator needed with the Amiga) connection of computers etc for less. with AMIGA, ST, SPECTRUM, BBC, VCRs, SAT
RECEIVERS. LIMITED STOCKS. 17° & other larger screen models also а
IF YOU HAVE ((21PIN EURO GIVE A МОС
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55995
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+75p POSTAG G THE MODULATOR
STEREO SOUND + STEREO HEADPHONE SOCKET SCART SOCKET FOR AMIGA, ST, SPECTRUM etc
COMPOSITE VIDEO INPUT FOR C64, TV TUNERS / VCRs FREE COMPUTER LEAD INCLUDED - STATE COMPUTER
ONLY £239.99 inc vat & delivery Fast Courier delivery - add £5.00.
Idéal for ST or Amiga - STEREO sound. Composite video input so also suitable for use with VCRs, tv tuners & C64. TTL RGB input for use with IBM PC/XT/AT (CGA mode).
COMMODORE 1084P
MONITOR. 14” SCREEN - MEDIUM RES MONO SOUND + HEADPHONE SOCKET RGBLINEAR, RGB TTL & CVBS INPUTS. s FREE LEAD - STATE COMPUTER
ONLY £239.99 INC LEAD USEFUL ACCESSORIES
MODULATOR EXTENSION LEAD....................£8.99
AL 1 AMIGA TO SCART TV & MONITOR LEAD FOR MOST MAKES INCLUDING SONY.. 10.99
A500 DUST COVER PHILIPS CM8833 DUST C!
MIDI INTERFACE 1 MIDI INTERFACE 2... - MINIAMP STEREO SPEAKERS SYTEMS FRí
PARALLEL PRINTER LEAD 1.5M PARALLEL PRINYTER LEAD 3.0!
MOUSE JOYSTICK SWITCH.. 1 MONITOR SHARER FOR SCART TV/MONITORS & TWO COMPUTERS OR VCR ETC . ...£15.99 Please add 75р postage on orders under £15.00. Please phone for more details & free catalogue.
PRINTERS
STAR PRINTERS
4 print styles, 4 print siz friction & tractor feed
park. Superb quality print. Compatible with virtually all
--. £169.99 LC10col .... £214.99 LC24-10.... £259.99
CITIZEN PRINTERS
120D......... £138.99 120D FOR C64/128 --- £138.99
Prices include ribbon & lead Please state computer when ordering
HOW TO ORDER:- By phone on ACCESS & VISA ORDERS. OR SEND CHEQUE/P.O. (made payable to TRLOGIC) ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT.& DELIVERY. FAST COURIER DELIVERY £5.00. Prices valid from 1/1/90 & correct at time of going to press, but subject to manufacturers 1
SONY BULK 3.5* DS/DD DISKS
SONY 3.5" DS/DD DISKS + labels PER 10... SONY 3.5" DS/DD DISKS + labels PER 2! SONY 3.5" DS/DD DISKS + labels PER 50 SONY 3.5" DS/DD DISKS + labels PER 100
suppliers price increases. E & OE. Prompt despatch, subject to availability. Callers welcome -
£13.74 .£28.49 .£55.99 .£99.99
MM -— . я
SHOPPING EXPRESS 4
GASTEINER TECHNOLOGIES LTD
Atari 520STFM : WATLABLE FROM Epson LX400..... {РОА Sony, TDK, Philips 3.5" DS/DD Аан 10405ТЕМ САУТЕМЕК ТЕСНХОГосІЕУ =P50" 194%. Boz аг 10 Atari Mega 1 Epson 10550. Kempston Data Scan Atari Mega 2. AND ALL GOOD STORES Citizen 1086... Mouse. ‘Atari Mega 4. Citizen Swift 24. Atari 1040STF. GAS 40Mb 11 milliseconds ~.n... £599 eC me dem GAS 50МЬ 28 milliseconds £479 н: MONITOR GAS ХУМЬ 28 milliseconds £079 BENATI = Star LC24-10. — SM124 (Atari). Auto boot, Auto Park. 12 months Panasonic KXP1180..... ХРОА SMI224 (Atari) ...... РИО | Panasonic KXP1124..— -ZEPOA i Prive 8892. ses DATA in an out. Back up progfam. Others please ring LASER COMPUTER PACKS Supra 30Mb.... £POA Алап SLM804 Sin Е UPGRADE FOR ATARI Atari 30Mb... £389 — SurLPS COMPUTERS UP TO 4MB £99 Auri Power Pack -£349 3.5" 1Mb.. £85 — HPLaserll.... Available from Gasteiner Atari 1040 PRO 4439 525"... {РОА HP Laser IID
and all good stores
Atari PC Pack Panasonic Laser...
MS-DOS ON THE ST WITH THAT'S PC SPEED - THE HARDWARE PC EMULATOR
Supports monochrome as well as colour monitors. Su; ports all hard disks and disk drives connected to the serial and parallel prot of your ST. Mouse supporting, IBM monochrome, CGA, Olivetti and Hercules graphic emulation. Extensive test available in ST magazine
The Ultimate Challenge.. PC compatibility for ATARI ST owners ae
1. PC SPEED is small but powerful measuring only 9.5 x 9.5 cm UTICA 2, PC SPEED із fast and compatible : What the Press says.....
3. PC SPEED does not require the ROM port therefore leaving it free to be used by other valuable programs £
4. PC SPEED can be built into any ST including the 520 Guardian - "It seemed to work well, 5. PC SPEED is easy to work with Ron et ee 6. PC SPEED runs MS-DOS software fast and bug free EMO Tu арвай. 7. PC SPEED supports all hard disks that rely on the DMA port and it also uses ATARI hard disk driver A p
8. PC SPEED supports all external 3.5 and 5.25 drives
9. PC SPEED supports the parallel and serial ports, can even use PCmouse
10. PC SPEED supports all sound capabilities
11. NORTON factor 4.0 (four times faster than 4.77 MHz XT)
12. PC SPEED provides the user with 704K ram (64K more than an XT)
13. PC SPEED emulates CGA and Hercules graphic cards
14. The processor in PC SPEED gains direct access to the RAM via the systembus, therefore requires no RAM and thereby does not lose speed, the known problem when accessing the ram via the serial .port.
ST Format - "A hard act to follow" - Nov 1989
ALL THIS FOR ONLY £249 inc VAT PLUS FURTHER DISCOUNT OF £49 FOR PEOPLE WHO OWN PC. DITTO 1 "vvv
See us at 16 Bit show stand 99 for show offers
ST World - "It took Germany by storm" - Nov 1989.
Popular Computing Weekly - "PC speed is capable of out performing an 80286 band PC when fitted to a 1040ST" - Oct Sth 1989.
Micro-Mart - "There has been a lot
DISTRIBUTORS I RI of interest in it” Issue 100
SOFTWARE
GRAPHICS
WORD PROCESSING ‘That's Write n ERE EN DAAN
П 299 Cyber Studio £POA Data Manager Pro First Wordt.. £59 Cyber Paint £POA Раа Manager K-Word E РОА Cyber Sculpt £POA Basell... Word Perfect .. £199 Cyber Texture ЕРОЛ Superbase... - Protext V4.2 3D Developer's Disk * ЕРОЛ Superbase Pro r Tempus II £POA Architectural Design Disk £POA PROGRAMMING Microsoft Write £49 Салооп Design Disk .£poA `Май Williams Word Writer £69 — Future Design Disk IRA DNE. à Human Design Disk £POA. Dreher Fonda ' DTP Microbot Design £POA рого Pascal Time Works DTP zm £POA Video Titling .£POA Hi Son Basic Fleet ST Pub ..... £89 — Sterotck РОА 68000 Easy Draw II. £POA 3D Fom +i POA asy Draw (Super) £POA Easy Tools £POA LETS MAKE Scan An. £POA — Greetings Cards £POA С. - - Draw Art. £POA Sign + Banners £POA СЕА Basic. - Borders ... £POA Calendars + Stationery “£POA SPREADSHEETS Partner ST £POA Anlibrary 1+2 £POA KSpread....... Spectrum 512 £POA УР. Ud MUSIC CAD 3D......... £POA 8м -] ab Notator ....... £319 * Printer. C-Tab Creator ... род hones 20А Mini Office Steinberg Pro 24 £POA " = Mastertracks Pro £POA including TIMEWORK DTP + E E S SWAPSHOT – £34.95 EASY DRAW II - £95
GASTEINER TECHNOLOGIES LTD
UNIT 12, MILLMEAD BUSINESS €
TRE, MILLMEAD ROAD, LONDON №17 900 1151. Fax: 01-884 2418.
DO YOU WANT 2
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Move across to the rewarding world of IT.
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BRITAIN'S BIGGEST SELLING COMPUTER WEEKLY
| STAFF WRITER |
NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS i
| New Computer Express is looking for a general staff writer who will be responsible to both the News and Features editors, assisting in the generation and preparation of copy for all areas of the magazine.
A clear, concise writing style, a sense of humour and the ability to meet strict weekly deadlines within a busy office are all essential requirements. Experience of journalism and an existing interest in at least one of the machines covered by NCE would be an advantage, but all applicants will be treated strictly on individual merit.
An attractive salary is available for the right applicant. If you think
you fit the bill, please apply in writing to the Editor, Martyn Lester, C&G418 Computer Programming enclosing a curriculum vitae and details of current salary, if applicable. & Information Processing.
Evening courses in DBASE, WP, Spreadsheet Analysis. | Evening courses in Pascal, BASIC & COBOL.
ишге
PUBLISHING
Future Publishing, based in one of Britain's most beautiful cities, is a young, friendly company which in just four years has grown into a £7 million tumover business employing 100 staff. We publish eight computer magazines, sold throug newsagents nationwide, and there are exciting plans for new titles.
TRAINING FOR YOUR FUTURE| E|
|I Future Publishing Ltd • 30 Monmouth St * Bath • BAL 2AP * Tel. 0225 442244 | тыш шыш ишш инан ġa шыш пина тшн шыш Aem
Programmers
HiSoft, the UK's leading software house in the design and
implementation of programming languages and utilities for
microcomputers, is looking for new programmers io join its 68000 development team.
Applicants should be graduates, preferably in Computer Science, with a good working knowledge of 68000 годи and excellent, in-depth experience of either the Atari ST or the Commodore Amiga computers. You should know 68000 assembler language and C, at the very least, and you must believe in standards and programming defensively for upward compatibility.
You will join a small and enthusiastic team working at The Old School in Greenfield, Bedfordshire - a peaceful, country location yet close to London and Milton Keynes.
Salary is negotiable, company car is a possibility and hours can be very flexible. If you are interested, give David Link a call on 0525 718181 or send in your Curriculum Vitae to HiSoft, The Old School, Greenfield, Bedford MK45 5DE. All applications will be dealt wth in the strictest confidence.
X COMPUTER JOBS | A
One Experienced Telesales Executive
essential. Excellent salary plus commission. | Start immediately.
Contact: Brian Glover 051 639 7900 for an appointment, or write to: 4 Hillam Road, Wallasey Village, Wirral, Merseyside L45 8LE.
[SALES SUPPORT to £19k « car
Established and rapidly expanding PC and Network Dealership IB urgently requires Sales Support Exec. to provide pre- and post- sales Consultancy and Support to medium and large Client base in South East England (London, Home Counties, M4). The successful applicant will possess a minimum of 2 years industry support experience, and will be ambitious, thoroughly professional, and be prepared to work as part of a young dynamic team.
For this and many similar positions in the South East, contact:
Ronicom Recruitment 46-47 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JG Tel No: 01-321 0245 Fax: 01-839 7629
B Or if you prefer to contact us out of office hours, call Nick on 01-994 5985 or Rob on 01-574 9369.
PALAGE SOFTWARE
Palace Software is a division of the Palace film and video organisation. We are a publisher of high quality computer games, and are looking for key technical personnel to work in our central London offices.
Our current projects are exciting and innovative and you will work in a team environment with some of the best designers, artists and musicians in the business. We are looking for highly motivated and committed individuals with a disciplined approach to work.
TECHNICAL MANAGER A technically-minded person is required to help oversee the development of high quality leisure products. You should be an ex-programmer, with practical working knowledge of 8 bit and 16 bit programming techniques. Some project management experience is desirable.
PROGRAMMERS Experienced programmers are required to work on a variety of creative projects in an in-house team environment. You will have a proven track record of published work. A thorough working knowledge of 68000 and C would be ideal but significant experience on other games computers could be taken into consideration.
Please contact either: Patricia Mitchell on 01-278 0751 Simon Birrell on 01-278 5037 or send your C.V. to
Palace Software, The Old Forge, 7 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX
ARE YOU A BRILLIANT PROGRAMMER?
THEN TALK TO THE SALES CURVE! The Sales Curve's in-house development team, Random Access, the programmers
of such hits as Silkworm and The Ninja Warriors are looking for talented . programmers and attists to join the team.
We have massive amounts of in-house work available for Programmers ой all | machines and are particularly interested in talking to 780 programmers who feel oroduce high quality S mstrad conversions of top
j Der can produce trum and notch Í6-bit games, originally produced by one of the leading American
_ NINTENDO: We have recently been appointed as authorized Nintendo 4 ripe а ( аге пар. four other ОК, companies who can say the same!) and as such we wish to talk to programmers and artists who have the relevant рее professionalism and desire to be trained to work on this hugely . successful system. | We are based in smart, comfortable offices in South London and offer the right programmers a happy working environment, good pay with bonuses, training . where relevant and can help with relocation to London.
. If you would like to have a chat about the many opportunities currently available within The Sales Curve, please telephone Simon Pick, development , manager, on 01-585-3308. NOW! E
46 SHOPPING EXPRESS
5.25-INCH disk software for the BBC ring for prices inc. Commodore 64 tape soft- ware plus reset cartridge and Casio Mini Keyboard. Ring Mike Aster 4pm (0703) 558198.
SEGA games console including 7 games ie, Outrun, Afterburner, etc. Only £120 call James Brolly (N Ireland) on 050 4762362
for a quick sale.
PCW9512 save £100 as new only used once. All Amstrad software includes key- board, monitor, and printer for only £475. Call CYD 01-854 3464 after 6pm.
COMMODORE 32960 (CBM) and printer MPP-1361 for sale. Any reasonable price to be discussed. Phone Oliver 01-937-8491 evenings only.
ATARI 800XL for sale with over £100 worth of games, and two joysticks good condition, asking price around £65. The Old Mill, Church Bank, Kirkby, Malzeard, N Yorks HG4 3RT.
SPECTRUM+ £30, VTX5000 modem £30, Opus Discovery £50, Spectrum +2 with soft £70, Phone Jetfire Jay on 0702 74415.
C64 disk drive, printer, Datasette, all leads and manuals, £1900 worth of software, util- ities and games, disk and cassette £300. Phone 0908 320 002.
SPECTRUM +3 complete with tape recorder and joystick worth £250 and £220 worth of games. Will accept £265 ono. all excellent condition. tel Winterbourne 774068.
РС ENGINE games for sale, Vigilante, Cybercross, Deep Blue, Space Harrier, plus SDC other s including Ordyne, R-Type, Gala- gass, Ninja Warriors, Chan and Chan and Teles of Monster Path. 01-373 7567.
SPECTRUM Software games etc large box full, £20 the lot! Phone 089285 3185.
ATARI 520STFM, Super Pack + software (60 discs) eg C.Blood, О.М etc + joystick, mags and leads. All boxed. Still guaranteed. Manchester area. £330 ono. Ideal for Xmas. Phone Richard on 061-485-6580
LOTS of back issues of Crash, Your Sin- clair and Sinclair User for sale. Phone 021 429 2410 make offer plus some Spectrum books and VTX 5000 modem also few games.
NEW Computer Express magazines issues 1-54 for sale. All in v.gc any reasonable offer accepted (no time wasters please). Contact John on York (0904) 799373 for. this one time offer.
TECHNICS Organ EX10 as new, late compact model, two keyboards, Bass Ped- als, many sounds and rhythms, midi facility, key change facility. Bargain at £650. Bolton (0204) 52651.
BBC B computer with cassette player, joy- stick and games £140 ono. Blackpool (0253) 722598.
AMIGA A500, External Drive, 600 3.5- inch disks, 50 mags, 6 joysticks, disk boxes, all this for £700 ono. Contact Gareth tel: (0928) 560306.
FREEEZE Machine MK.V with enhancement disk £20. Final cart £15. Tel: 0460 – 40830 (Somerset).
AMSTRAD CPC 464 Green Screen, much software, magazines, good condition. £199 опо. Contact Anthony Brenchley, 25 Glanfield Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3JS
or 01-658 4134 for further information.
YEEERR Boys! ( and Girls) Speccy + 2, Mul- tiface 128, Sampler, about 400 original games including Devpec. no half stepping. Lets talk £200. Eamon 01-708 1163 after 7pm.
SPECTRUM plus, tape recorder, Alphacom printer with many games and books £100. Phone 0234 767168.
CBM 64, Disk Drive, Two Data Recorders, Modem, plus cartridges, Freeze Machine, Quick disk+, Simons Basic, Mouse, Joy- stick, software and more £210, buyer col- lects. 0703 766949.
AMSTRAD CPC 464 Mono Monitor, Modula- tor, Disk Drive, Memory Upgrade, Stereo Speakers, Light Pen, Tape/Disk Software + Disks, Magazines Value £1,000+ accept £295 опо. Phone 0742 461282.
AMSTRAD PPC640D Twin Disks with Modem. Excellent Condition £380. Also ‘Amstrad LQ5000 24-PIN Printer high quality print, very fast £230. Or £580 both. Tel: 051-228 0827.
27 Acorn electron games including titles such as Үе Ar Kung Fu and Thai Boxing £20. Tel: (061) 761 6541.
AMSTRAD Colour CPC 6128 with over £300 of software including Hisoft Pascal and Mini Office Il, plus Tape Deck. All in orig- inal packaging, only £225. Phone - 372 379101.
ST games for sale. Balance of Power £10; Elite £10; Falcon £10 originals! Write to. Norman Boyle, 16 Botanic Crescent, Glas-
gow G20 8QJ 041 946 2420.
BROTHER Daisy Wheel Printer Model HR-1 (Centronics Interface) £180; Apple DWP Model A3M0027 plus roll feed £220; Inmac Acoustic Printer Box £25. Watford (0923) 225083.
LOTUS Symphony V1.2 £46. Also have. Microsoft C V5.1 £90 and Wordstar Profes- sional V5 £90. All software new boxed and sealed. Tel: 061 224 8391.
ATARI STFM.5 Meg Internal N.E.C. Drive £20 – or swap for 2 games. No phone so please send your details to 24 Ritchie Road, Croydon CRO 7AU 100 per cent reply.
BONDWELL PRO 8T Laptop IBM MS-DOS 3.3 20М 1 x 31/24псһ ICE Blue Backlit Screen Modem software easy Metro Word- star Frameworks as new £750. Tel: 0704 66485.
ATARI 520 STFM with over £1,000 games and copying software — mint condition, man- vals, joysticks included. Exchange for Amiga 500 or sell £300 ono. Tel: 9am - 4 pm 0253-861425, брт - 10pm 03917- 2937.
QL Computer complete with QL suite soft- ware £50, Microvitec KGB Monitor £100, other QL software, various books, Micro- drive cartridges, offers invited: 0491 652157.
DRAGON 32 with Sanyo Data Récorder plus loads of original programs £60 ono. Phone 0226 (Barnsley) 203044. Microvitec CUB 1431 DS Monitor £70.
NINTENDO games Console good condition still boxed. Four games, controllers, plus two extra command joysticks, worth £200 sell for £80 ono. Phone (0236) 23173 after 5pm.
ATARI ST DS Disk Drive (Cumana). As new plus Blitz copier £90 ono and Psion organ-
iser ll Model XP £75 ono. Phone 01-299 2381.
MACINTOSH II plus unit, extended key- board, Zomb Hard Drive, 12-inch mono monitor, monitor stand, Datascream tape, Backup unit «Imagewriter LQ with Apple Talk Card Fitted — £3,800 ono. Phone Neil on (0702) 471717.
MICROSOFT C V5.1 special educational edition includes Programmers Editor and Quick C unused unregistered and sealed costs over £400 accept £90. Tel: 061 224 8391.
ATARI ST FM, Mouse, joysticks and Soft- ware including Word Processor, worth £80, £250 ono. Tel: Chester (0244) 381233.
ІВМ XT Boards for sale. 640K Mother Board £70, ССА £20, Floppy Disk l/F £20, Serial £10, Parallel £10, Disk Drive £20. Tel: (0234) 857482.
(C64 Disk Drive, Data Cassette, Printer, colour TV, Loads of disks and Cassettes. All as new. Worth £1,600, will accept reason- able offers. Call 0703 737185.
DRAMS for sale 256K BIT £1 each, 64K BIT 50р each. Tel: 0234 857482.
BBC B 40/80 Disk Drive, DMP3000 Printer, ATPL Sideways Board, Mini Office WWordwise/Pagemaker/Super Art, etc. ROMS, Software, Mouse, Joystick, Books £400. 0245 413385.
С64,1541, Mouse, Joystick and hundreds of games, utilities, books, mags. £280 ‘ovno. Phone Paul on 01-959 5660 after 4.30.
20 MEG hard Drive, 1 meg Memory Chips, 3.5:nch DS Drive best offer accepted S.A.E. for more details 83 Seymour Road, Lee-onSolent, Hants PO13 9EQ.
CASIO SF 4000 Digitial Diary 3 months old copy new £70. Sell for £40 ono. Tel: 0204 655564.
‘SPECTRUM 48K, Printer, spare paper, tape recorder, Speech Synthesizer, 3 Chan- nel Sound Synth, Interface, Joystick, lots of software £100. Tel: 0245 413385.
YAMAHA DX100 Programmable Midi Digital. ‘Synthesizer, Polyphonic, Midi leads included £150 Hardly used. Tel: 0245 413385.
PRINTER Tandy OMP 105 with cable and spare ribbons £50 offers considered. Beed, 83 Seymour Road, Lee-on-Solent, Hants P013 9ER.
5.25-inch DS 80 Track Drive (new) swap for Atari HERES monitor. Beed 83 Seymour Road, Lee-on-Solent, Hants PO13 9EQ.
MICRO drive plus Interface 1, 20 boxed cartridges, for spectrum £50. Phone Leam- ington Spa 0926 334151.
PC Engine for sale with 2 Joypads, Multi- tap, 6 games. In mint condition. Sell for £250. 164 Claughton Avenue, Crewe, Cheshire CW2 6BT or 0270 216549 Mat.
@ GOODS WANTED
SOFTWARE Wanted. Grantless student urgently needs 31/2inch PC Programs. CAD type package, graphics, PCB Design; plus others. Please phone (059) 215085 must be cheap cheap.
WANTED PC colour monitor some s/ware has to be delivered outside Scotland will pay £350 or less. Gordon Mackie, 100 Cat- more Road, Lochgelly Fife Scotland.
WANTED: 5.25 inch disk drive for Atari ST with own PSU. Contact Terry on 0622 859744 Evenings 6-9pm or weekends.
WANTED IBM PC 5.25 external disk drive, phone 041 959 3075.
WANTED some sort of cricket game for Amiga A500. (Originals Please). Phone Phil on Crediton (03632) 3816 or write: P. Palmers ‘Claremont’ Searle St, Crediton, Devon, EX17 2DB.
WANTED Hard Disk drive for Atari ST must be cheap and reliable. Wili consider bare drives, DMA Interfaces, SCSI interface etc. No Timewasters please. Telephone Russell 10932) 763326 daytime. (0642) 618634 weekend.
WANTED: Software in exchange for: Kind- words V2, Rocket Ranger, North and South, Galdregon, Domain, Gold Runner, ККІІ, Car- rier Command - All for Amiga (0222) 888665 (Nigel).
WANTED: Sierra on line adventures for Amiga. Must be cheap and excellent cond, Will buy or swap. Nigel, Tardis, Abertridewr Road, Caerphilly, Mid Glam CF8 2AP.
DMP 2000 NLQ wanted for swap with Amstrad 464 disk drive. Manual and many utilities good for first time buyer. 10 Free new box disks, 01-904 8518 after 3pm.
WANTED for Microwriter Agenda: 32K RAM + ROM cards; full PC Kit; Battery’, excellent Condition. Please phone 0506-30788 after lpm.
ATARI STFM 1 meg RAM 1 meg Drive Amstrad DMP 3000 Printer, joystick arid software £300. Tel 021 474 6509 After. 6pm.
OWNERS manual for the canon PJ1080A. printer or advice on how to use on Atari ST. 32 Rushton Road, Bradford, Moor Bradford, 803 80.
WANTED 5.25.inch disk drive wil swap for’ 3.5-inch for Amiga must be External cash. either way. Tel 0282 78933 ask for Mau: nce.
C64 software wanted for work place user group, send lists prices to М. Mcloed, 66 Torbieth Gnds, Cwdnfife Scotland.
WANTED disk drive for MSX computer. Also software. Telephone: office hours 0959 32222 Ext 3250 ask for Mr. Ander- son.
FOR ST. PCDitto working copy required. Mike Knight, 6 Cranark Close, Chorley New Road, Bolton, Lancs BL1 5XP.
MANUALS wanted for TRS-80 Mod 3 disk, owners manuals ver 1.3 printer, manual, DMP 400, assembly language, plus any other. Phone Chorley 02572 74898 any- time.
DCAD Sirius wanted 0784 430005.
FORTRAN compiler wanted for Amiga PD ог commercial program. Know of any? Write to S. Richards at 14 Braehead Drive, Barn- ton, Edinburgh, EH4 6QL.
WANTED Amiga A5009 outfit for up to £180, also wanted memory upgrade and second drive Tel: York 0904 416092 evenings.
WANTED desperate for Rinos of Zilphin (ST) М. Johnston 44 Rannochwk, Livingston W. Lothian EG54 5А). Hi to ST club (P. Glover etc) Bill, Dave, Ronnie, Miz, Steve, Rodger, John, MIM Judo Club and all contax (Guess Who?)
SHOPPING EXPRESS 47
PLACE AN AD
Selling an old computer? Need some help? Got any lips? Run а bulletin board? In charge of a user group? Мїег a second-hand bargain? You’ve come to the tight place. just fill in the form to place a free Classified advertisement in Shopping Express
Send your ad to: New Computer Express, 30 Monmouth Street. Bath.
Terms and conditions
* Sorry, NO trade ads. All reader ads must be from private individuals
* We cannot vouch for the quality of goods and/or sevices offered in this section. All ads are accepted in good faith We reserve the right to amend or refuse reader ads at our discretion
* No pirated software may be sold through these columns. Any reader being offered non-originals should con- tact us
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your ad to go in: | ;Help Offered
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РЕ t Er
48 SHOPPING EXPRESS
AFTER X-MAS GIFT GUIDE
VISIT OUR SHOWROOM IN WEST LONDON OR WE WILL DELIVER. ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT
ATARI ST PC COMP PRINTERS SOFTWARE
AMSTRAD Amiga, PC CYBER
2086 * Lotus SERIES STE Symphony M.T. 81 CYBER Studo £56
ARRIVED J " BLITTER CHIP, EIE. New Zealand | [IBM AT Compatible, 3.5 Great, little printer, by
4096 COLOURS, Interceptor: £359 Dei £649.09 Mannesmann Tally, 80 col, ||CYBER Paint £42
BETTER STEREO Deluxe Paint Il 9 Pin, 24/130 cps. SOUND. +10 Disks, TV Mod. Mono Monitor Incl. VAT CYBER Control £49
Very easy to Windows, GW Basic
expand memory OR ALL 3 1MB EP EXTRAS wy £135 3.5" Switch/Port £85 eub £1 00
ASK FOR OTHER
520 STE EXPLORER mB oot ro @69 |что £400 TIMEWORKS
PUBLISHER Colour Cee NEM he £349 | onera: £100 DTP Publisher £90
Collection or 30MB Organiser £289.20 MONITORS Hard Disk £300 Турортайса £49 (Database, Diary, Word rime (3 Fonts)
Processor, Spreadsheets.) Amiga/64c ATARI STAR LC24-10 Timeworks £25
£89 PORTFOLIO ETE A Tutor 520 STE POWER Mono Amber IBM PC Bios Compatible, мин и; ө; ORALL 3 £1 49 РАСК 128К ВАМ, 63 Кеу xad ONLY 20 Superb Games, Business + | | Colour, RGB, Med. Depa Keyboard, LCD Sene: £239.99 Music software, joystick Resolution Software £239 99 PC Stereo 10845 £249 | ioni тый [ДЕ ЧЕ
COMMODORE TIMEWORKS PC10/PC20 PANASONIC PUBLISHER
вот £559.09 ЖАЫ со LEO
Й 640К RAM, 1MB Drive, Inc. VAT 4 44 360K 5 Very Good Quality 24 Pin, || Ti 1040 KRAM, £ 9 1/4" Drive, Mono Monitor, к imeworks Tutor £25 V Modulator, COMMODORE 64C MSDOS + GW Basic, incl. 1 £269. 99 Blitter, 4096 Col, New ` LIGHT year on-site service Sm First Word Plus £56
63/192cps
Sound Chip. XA FANTASTIC EXTRAS £70
CASSETTE UNIT, 3D Second Drive
сому £139
GLASSES, LIGHTGUN, 10 5 1/4" 360K - Tem ones oe | oven £240 TETTE s z Colour 3.5" inc. PSU "i49 coL Monitor £1 50 |8 майнап £899 AMIGA . Worn £300
1MB DDL LTD DRIVE C1541 51/4" Tally. VAT мр £78 £14 6PPM, ae
ee £1 3. 512KB RAM, 300 dpi, HP || 10 Fantastic
we" £449 Mete ЭЙ От OnSite ATARI ST Servicing. HYPER PACK £29 (As in 520 99
ШШЕ EALING COMPUTER CENTRE Tr;
SM 124 Mono £ 1 i 9 19 Queens Parade, Ealing, London W5 ЗНО. Tel: 01 991 0928 || Sian, Banners:
1 Greeting Card: Monitor 12 Prices include delivery for software and small items. For next day courier add £6.99 үкү кчы R nery mainland * Above prices for mail order, shop prices may vary Art Library 2 А
ж All offers subject to улт бушу" ОВ АМҮ We are on the corner of Hanger Lane (North Circular) & Queens Drive [SC1224 Colour £269 ж Easy parking ж Most models in stock x Visa and Access РС
Monitor 12" When ordering, quote No. N14. You can only claim your FREE gifts at the time of order.
With any purchase over £150. Choose one from
DISCS following: Bulk 3.5' AK t £15 + а) Joystick, b) 40 discs box 51/47/31", с) Printer Fr eH Cable, d) 10 discs DSDD 3 1/2" or 5 1/4", e) 500 sheets comp. paper.
GAMES CONSOLE
Despite never having been released in this country, the PC Engine has a growing reputation as a games machine. Now the PC Engine II has been launched in Japan, and Tony Takoushi brought the first model into the Express offices for a European exclusive review.
* Techno styling is the order of the day with the new PC Engine
Int E
PC ENGINE SUPER GRAFK
NEC * NOT OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE, GREY IMPOR AROUND £275
The original NEC PC Engine games console was unleashed onto the Japanese market in November 1986, and after ecstatic reviews in Europe NEC was swamped with calls for information on availability. It has become the
NGINE
c
Nintendo in sales, though still with a long way to go to compete against the latter's huge established user base.
Now NEC has released its new model, and there are |
rumoured to be plans to release an authorised stripped
| down version of the original Engine in the US and possibly Europe late this year. So why has NEC released a new |
model when its current machine is riding so high? The answer lies in the fact that Sega and Nintendo will
shortly be releasing new 16-bit consoles, with far superior |
graphics, colour and sound capabilities. NEC has tried to get a foothold before the expected Nintendo invasion with the old PC Engine, and it is trying to keep up with the
number-one selling machine in Japan, beating even | already launched Sega Megadrive (currently the number-
THE FIRST SHOOT-'EM-UP
One of the first games released for the new system is Battle Ace. This is a cross between Galaxy Force and Afterburner in which you control a fighter and have to rid the galaxy of evil aliens yet again. There are many plan ets to visit and even some space duels to fight. On booting the game you see a spaceship zipping along with a tasty starfield scrolling in the background and a planet screaming along under- neath you. The ‘Attract’ mode also demos different levels from the game. On pressing RUN you are placed in a launch tunnel and as you zoom down it a small light appears and grows bigger as you are finally thrown out onto the first planet and into battle!
Your view is through a cockpit and you have a crosshair sight which allows you to tilt your machine up and down or left and right, with a 360-degree flip option. The speed of the rotation has to be seen to be believed, it really has eyeballs rolling.
In your cockpit there is a scanner showing aliens coming in from the front and rear and below you are clouds.
Button one on your joypad fires the machine guns and button two fires mis- siles. You can only fire missiles if your
^" С)
* Pursuing aliens across the galaxy in Battle Ace
cross-sight has locked on to the aliens, who attack in patterns with deadly fast and accurate missiles. You can fly up over them or try to duck, and for those of you with an urge to surge you can do а 360-degree flip while zapping them with your machine guns or launching homing missiles
The action goes from day to night and yet more aliens attack. You then have to battle your way through a storm, with lightning bolts sizzling down from the sky to the planet. You must avoid these as contact is fatal and you will lose one of your three lives. if you get through the storm, the mothership is waiting and its defence ships sur.
* Later in the game you skim over the ocean of a planet
round it and fire at you while you try to zap its power core. When this is destroyed you are shown the star sys- tem with planets rotating round to show your next battlegrounds.
The other scenes have you in space battling an asteroid field. It is їп 3D with the aliens hurtling around you, fully tex- tured and rotating. There is also a space trench with you having to brave laser bars as you swing between levels and desert and lava planets, with jets of lava spewing up in fountains a la Galaxy Force as you dive between solid textured columns. Fortunately you get ап extra life at 20,000 points. You will need it.
* The expansion bus on the back of the Engine allows add-ons
like disk drives and keyboards to be added І | "D ПЕП
опе machine for 16-bit games) by promoting the PC Engine Super Grafx, as the new machine is called. The Sega Megadrive is here and the standard of soft. | ware is going through the roof, the Konix is still a dark horse pottering around the paddock and the Nintendo 16: bit (Super Famicom) is yet to be seen, In comparison, the new NEC machine looks good with its excellent sprite han: | dling and extra colours, although it will be safest to reserve judgment until a few more games are available.
GRAFX POWER The PC Engine Super Grafx is more than twice as large as the original PC Engine. It boasts double the sprite capacity (up from 64 to 128 sprites), better sound, more colours (around 4,000 to choose from) and it is compatible with the | original model so you can slot in games from your old sys- tem. The machine is a very unusual shape that is more futuristic than functional — it is possibly best described as | lookin like a computer component, The gamecards slot in from the top of the unit, facing towards you, and as with the | original Engine the power slider bolts the card into place. There are two ports — one on the back (the external bus, which appears to be incompatible with the original PC | Engines CD-ROM) and one on the front, mysteriously | labelled 'S Expansion’. Whether this is for RGB output or a disk-drive/keyboard add-on remains to be seen Video output is via a composite lead, there is no RF output or standard TV output, and there is stereo sound with phonos for left and right channels. The joypad is almost the same as the original but has turbo buttons to save wear and tear on your poor old tendons. | The software is on memory cards as with the original, and they will have the same maximum capacity of around four megabytes.
| EXPRESS VERDICT | The new model is visibly better, a quantum leap forward | from the old Engine. It offers enough enhancements to lure owners of the old system to upgrade, even though it will cost around twice the price. At the end of the day the same old 8-bit processor is in | there but the custom video chip has been uprated and the software hurtles along with a significantly greater number of colours. Costing around £180 in Japan it will probably sell for around £275 in the UK, after grey importers have hacked оп а пен power supply and video output.
NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 13 JANUARY 1990 * 49
WALLA ENA ESA eee CU ы EN
There's no catch. We're giving you the Atari 520 STFM and £500
worth of great software titles for just £399.99. The twenty-three superb titles include some of the greatest
Atari Corporation (U.K.) Limited, Atari Houstailway
m d 25 Bb ni NENNEN
ккк!
Fer T DE
popular computer applications such as word processing Please send me details of this and other Atari products. | and spreadsheets.
Name: So take advantage of this great offer now. And
| Address: . X be a bright spark.
^us&Rálway Terrace, Slough, Berkshire SL2 5Bz
GAMES
* The view through your goggles of the snow-covered fractal world of the Azores in fifty years' time! Midwinter's immense size and real-time action requires a lot of cross-country skiing
I"
MIDWINTER
ST / AMIGA / PC + AVAILABLE MARCH * MICROPROSE 0666 504326
Last year's acquisition of the Telecomsoft labels gave mili- tary simulator specialist Microprose access to some of the best programmers in the country. The undisclosed sum involved enabled the American parent company to con- tinue releasing top-notch software, but with a much wider appeal. This was due to the backlog of Telecom games included a host of projects commissioned by Rainbird — arguably Britains most innovative software label. Midwinter is one of its first titles to live up to the quality we came to expect from Rainbird, and can surely be expected to sell well when it hits the streets in a month or two.
Concern with environmental issues being something of an interest now — never mind an overdue necessity — Midwinter is set on a group of snow-covered islands — the Azores! It's 50 years hence and the global climate has taken something of a battering. Yep, there's going to be a new Ice Age...
ZOOT AZORES! Microprose programmers have spent six man-years researching and coding the product and have spoken to various climatic researchers in the course of the game's development. The growth in the polar ice caps will mean a drop in sea-levels and the consequent uncovering of vast areas of the ocean bed. With a certain increase in volcanic activity, areas near the junctions of continental plates will be the sites for new outcrops of land, particularly where some ground already existed by the sea. The islands of the
* Once you've contacted a few colleagues and found some supply depots you can continue your adventure in more com-
ILD Lil
Azores look like being the region of the world most likely to be affected. As such the micro-world has been coded as а | faithful representation of the Azores when the next Ice Аде occurs. The developers went so far as to visit the islands to aid the process of extending the present-day geography to | that of one large snow-covered land mass.
Ай in all 11 programmers and researchers have worked on the project and the results speak for them- selves. The key to the stunning landscapes and maps is the employment of fractal graphics, as pioneered and developed by the American mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and his followers. But the graphics employ an extra quality to those found on existing fractal landscape generators available for 16-bit machines. The added dimension is light-sourced shading and the effect is to introduce convincing shadow and form to the landscape relief on show.
TRACK RECORD The team behind the project, Maelstrom, have something of a unique track record in this department, After the suc- | cess of Lords of Midnight and Doomdark's Revenge — which brought 48,000 viewpoints to a Spectrum game — Maelstrom's main programmer, Mike Singleton, went on to release Whirligig. Although disappointing in terms of game- play, this solid 3D shoot-em-up was the first game ever to employ objects that changed in appearance according to | their position. A fixed light source created convincing shad- ing and imbued subjects with a realism never previously encountered. In Midwinter the same method is used to even greater effect since objects in the distance become bluer and darker as they recede. The result is solid 3D realism. Obviously it also requires a fair bit of know-how to code such graphics to move at speed, but because the world is not randomly generated but pre-mapped according to the projected geography of the Azores, screen update
* These two maps show land-use, infrastructures and supply points. This is where you plan your routes
Fancy exploring a computer-generated world of fractal landscapes that stretches for 160,000 square miles? So did Andy Storer — so he took a pioneering stroll through Microprose’s promising Midwinter...
и 017 гш у * For the ultimate in Arctic simulation, you can try your hand
at hang-gliding - a sport that's bound to take more than a little practice at low temperatures
\ Illu MAUIUL
times are minimised. In addition, because of pre-mapping,
the 160,000 square mile play area can be accurate right down to a claimed 30cm!
BUT WHAT OF GAMEPLAY? As you might expect in a future scenario where climatic conditions have made even the hot-spot of the Azores freeze over, social conditions have also changed some- what. Populations are local and organised in thinly-spread
| communities. The scattered villages of the new Azores
have pooled resources to form the FVPF, the Free Villages Peace Force. The force comprises of 19 Peace Officers, each positioned at a Heat Mine. Up against you is the dic- tator of a group of other villages who's bent on dominating the entire region. Initially you take the role of the officer in charge of the FVPF and must travel across country to con- tact your colleagues. Your journey takes place in real-time and involves hang-gliding, driving snow-buggies, skiing and cable cars. Once you find a colleague you can also gain direct control of his actions and switch between char- acters at will
Altogether there are 32 interactive characters, each with a range of role-playing attributes. As such, the object of the game is to shoot, sabotage and out-manoeuvre enemy forces intent on capturing all of the Heat Mines while simultaneously attempting to capture their HQ.
It's the kind of race against time underpinning all clas- sic strategy games.
Midwinter will be released for the ST, PC and Amiga in early March and is expected to sell for around £30. With the game will be supplied a laminated wall map of the game-world and a 150-page manual, This will include sec- tions on hang-gliding and skiing instruction, as the action elements in the game are faithful simulations of these activities and mastering them is essential to completing the task at hand.
* Alternatively, you can call up a relief map of the entire area to assist you in your treks
50 * NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS 13 JANUARY 1990
ө FURO-SERIES
РС • £34.50 PER PROGRAM TOPWARE • 01-228 0242
With 1992 just around the comer, a language other than English will be a distinct advantage whatever your field. By the end of the decade no doubt English will have finally become the international language to which all Europe subscribes, but in the meantime there's a lot to be gained from more than a mere smattering of a foreign language. Especially in business situations.
Topware's suite is geared towards those who wish to make a good impression without recourse to the limitations of night school, cassette courses or textbooks. Topware's approach is to present you with what is in essence a vocabulary crammer, the turgid structures of syntax and grammar being left well out of the way so the user can arm. himself with essentíal key phrases to which he only need add the appropriate gestures. Each Euro-Series disk comes complete with 1,000 expressions in five languages = French, Italian, German, English and Spanish – on a range of subjects relating to its field. Thus the Businessman program concentrates on customs, taxes, purchases, payments, shipments and the like, while the Operator disk takes in programming, technology, applica- tions, peripherals and so on. The range of expressions is not solely restricted to the program's specialism though – you can pick up enough of the more general phrases to get you through ordinary everyday situations from any of the different tutorials.
ACCENT ON LEAR
LEARNING TARGETS
After you have chosen between the three levels of difficulty and specified a desired learning target, the program moni- tors your progress and tailors itself to your ability. The learning target is simply the number of questions per ses- sion you wish to answer. It is suggested beginners should attempt only nine questions a day while aficionados can Start out at 75. Repetitions can be introduced to ensure good learning. Depending on the number and speed of your responses the program will ask you more difficult questions, saving your results to disk. So, if you don't use it for a while this will be taken into account when it is next booted up, and simpler questions will greet you until you get back up to speed again,
As the bulk of the learning process is arranged around highlighting menu bars, most operations are enabled by using just three keys — the up/down cursor and Enter keys.
One of the first menu items you need to confirm are the learning parameters. Here you need to to specify the source, target and assisting languages. Thus it's possible to be asked questions in German, answer them in French and, if and when the going gets rough, be given clues in Italian! However unless you're Swiss this won't often be
the case — translating from English to one of the other four |
languages on hand is likely to be the usual configuration
On beginning the learning routine you are presented with a screen of 10 nouns or phrases with 10 possible cor- respondences. You merely scroll the highlighted menu bar to what you believe to be the correct answer and your per- centage score is updated accordingly. The level of difficulty changes in accordance with your percentage of correctly answered questions. If over 90 per cent of your answers are correct, more difficult questions will be posed, likewise if only 60 per cent or less of answers are correct the ques- tions become easier.
The formula is very effective. In no time at all the grim task of learning a language becomes a challenge as the
The Businessman, the Traveller, the Operator, the Secretary, the Technician and the European. No, it’s not some new film by Peter Greenaway but a set of language study aids, finds Andy Storer.
= Ment atari.
TRANSLATE INTO SPANISH
SSIONAL
Another series of programs known as the Professional Series is also available from Topware. These 1.2Mb ver- sions are intended for hard-disk users and feature collo- quial language, synonyms, opposites and relational text learning. The series extends to Spanish, French, German and Italian. in addition the company is also producing do-it- yourself learning programs to enable teachers and employ- ers to design their own specialised databases for testing and training pupils and staff
| to your personal needs and particularly ideally suited to | laptop PC users wishing to maximise their ‘wait-states’ on
Process takes on the air of a contest between you and the machine. This is compounded by the simplicity with which its possible to get any of the programs up and running — it's so easy to dive right іп and attempt to give your PC another pasting
SHARPEN RESPONSES However, despite the addictiveness of the question and answer format, there's more to learning a language than simply remembering the correct responses to a number of fixed questions.
Thus Euro-Series gives you the opportunity to choose the number of times a question will be repeated to sharpen up your automatic responses. It also allows you to set the duration of learning sessions so as to benefit from the advantage of enjoying small doses instead of toiling for long periods, and finally, you can also determine the num- ber of questions bombarding you per session. But perhaps the suite's most endearing feature is the specialisation of the tuition areas.
The accent is firmly on the application of language to Suit your particular fields of interest rather than on a gener- alist overview of all a language's vocabulary. The result is a concentration on the phrases and words that matter — in buying a Euro-Series program you're not investing in superfluous details.
All this makes for a flexible learning package tailored
trains and planes. M
NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS « 13 JANUARY 1990 « 59
ои can save money by lifting the lid on the PC — Y just as you can by lifting the bonnet on your car – but there are no guarantees that you will end up with a bargain. One of the risks when you become involved in computer hardware is that you become so enthusiastic about the mechanics of it all that you're forever saving up for this extra and and that go-faster stripe — striving to build the best machine on the block.
Consider also that building a PC completely from spare parts is never going to be cheaper than buying a similar machine complete, any more than you could build a Ford Sierra from catalogue parts and expect it to be cheaper than a complete car from a dealer. There is a markup on every part, extra handling and packaging and so on involved in dealing with a lot of little bits instead of опе big bit. On the other hand, a car built from two or three write-offs might be good value for money, and kit cars have their attractions. Not least of these is having something constructed by your own hands to exactly your specification. But enough of these caveats — where are the money-saving opportunities?
There are several ways for the less well-versed enthu- siast to save money on PCs. Let's consider a few possible scenarios. The company you work for is upgrading the office XTs to ATs so that they can run the latest version of WordPerfect (rather than watching it walk). You might be able to pick up an old slow PC with no hard disk and a mono screen for under a hundred pounds. Buy it. Buy two of them. They can be easily upgraded for a fraction of the cost of a new machine,
At computer auctions you will find that while complete ‘systems go for around 75 per cent of the RAP, parts ot systems go for much less. A box with no keyboard or moni- tor can often be had for a fraction of its value in spares. Similarly, as people's perceptions of the minimum require- ment for a PC go up, the parts that don't fit that specification get harder to sel. But as a PC mechanic you will know exactly what you want your PC to do, and can buy parts according to need rather than fashion — cheaply.
Damaged stock is always a possibility. Plastic is very vulnerable to mechanical or heat damage. But let's be real- istic about this, a monitor with the sides melted right down to slag can still be working perfectly well and last for years. If you're worried about electrocuting the children, build it into a mock Queen Anne cabinet.
And what about other people's upgrades? When a dealer goes into an office suite and upgrades all the. machines to colour, or from 20Mb to 40Mb hard disks, what happens to the bits that come out? Where do all the 360K drives go that were replaced by 1.2Mb drives? They go cheap is the answer, especially if you can get in before too many people realise the opportunity exists.
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
It may be that you had one really good opportunity and got hold of a particularly desirable part, perhaps a good colour monitor or а big, fast hard disk. You may not even have a PC in mind to put it into but when something like that cropped up, you sensibly jumped at it. The fact is that you can always get a really cheap, utterly basic (and probably unusable) PC suitable for upgrading.
А good source of these are companies that manufac- ture computers, obviously. They usually offer ludicrous terms to their employees and sell off stock at discounts as great as 50 per cent off the retail price. Assuming a bog- standard XT computer with a couple (or even one) floppy disk drive and a mono screen retails at around £400 pounds, you could possibly pick one up for a couple of hundred pounds just by knowing the right person — the one who can buy a computer on your behalf.
There's one other thing you need to know before you
PUT TOGETHER YOUR
By piecing together a PC from old computers, bargains and spare parts you can come up with a customised machine that will do exactly what you want – and you can save money. Steve Patient tells you how.
* Hercules graphics card. Allows you to use a cheap high-resolution. monochrome monitor.
* RAM memory. Get at least 640K to be sure of running all programs.
54 • NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS • 13 JANUARY 1990
BARGAIN HUNTING
board won't work with that other drive.
Only those with complete confidence in their abilities. should even consider buying parts with no documentation. Original manufacturers will not be interested in sorting you out and the people you bought from are unlikely to know as much as you. As always, real bargain hunters operate on their own.
Let's look at what you need to know to spot bargain |
parts. Firstly, what the parts are, then what they do and finally, how much you would expect to pay retail.
NEWS AT TEN
For the the do-it-yourselfer there are only two kinds of PC, the XT and the AT. The XT is the original PC while the AT is a faster machine (usually with hard disk) using a more powerful microprocessor. If you're going to get your hands dirty it's worth getting the originally specified full-size box for either of these two basic machines. The AT box is both wider and higher — mainly because add-in cards for an AT are higher (usually) than XT cards,
With a full-size box almost any kind of kit can be fitted, whereas if you go for a small footprint design you may well find that only one manufacturer's parts (like power sup- plies) will fit. Putting together PCs is helped by the way mass manufacturers have virtually standardised many parts. This has happened to such an extent that if you buy а box it will often have holes pre-drilled to match power supplies and disk drives from virtually anywhere. An AT or XT box will cost from £20 to £35 new — get a flip top box for easy access.
In the bottom of this box goes the computer itself, the motherboard, In the case of an XT this holds the 8088 microprocessor (or perhaps an 8086, V20 or V30 chip instead, which are all functionally identical if rather faster). Go for a 10MHz or faster board if possible. This will cost between £50 and £70 with no memory. XT boards run ир to about 12MHz, while AT ones stretch to 16 or even 20MHz. Make sure memory for it is available from either >
and EGA send TTL signals, which have distinct electronic levels: VGA sends analogue signals which can have an infinite range of electronic levels. The ‘two monitor types are incompatible and can be damaged by the wrong kind of signal. Analogue VGA monitors have a 15-pin D-type connector instead of the usual 9-pin D-type to avoid connecting them up wrongly.
It is thus very important to get the correct monitor for your purposes - if you're offered a cheap monitor check ‘that you can use it before buying.
Mf you plan to use your PC for busi- ness - word processing, spreadsheet or database work, then a Hercules- compatible monochrome monitor is a good buy - the text is extremely sharp and the display is fast. The whole thing is easy on the eye. A monitor that can cope with EGA (and hence with CGA) is an advantage since it will allow you to upgrade your display adapter as the opportunity arises without having to change the monitor.
Hercules is perfectly acceptable for DTP work. If you can only output to а laser printer ог a dot-matrix printer - Which is black and white - why confuse the issue with a colour screen?
For games playing you will need CGA at least, and anyone being honest will admit that that's all CGA is good for. It gives 640 pixels wide by 200 lines deep. You get 16 colours in character mode and four in graphics mode. The on-screen characters are very ill- formed and working on it is tiring on the eyes. CGA has the advantage of being relatively cheap. A CGA card will
ON THE VIDEO FRONT | Video adapter cards, which control a set you back £30 to £40 new and a monitor, are frequently a major area of monitor to suit will cost around £180. concern when it comes to upgrading a The dot pitch will be very coarse at PC. There are currently four distinct 0.52mm. If you want colour really ‘standards’ and some important varia- badly you may not regret it; but it's tions within those standards. The most. unlikely. Hercules is much better. widely used video adapters are Her- EGA is backwardly-compatible with cules, CGA, EGA and VGA in increasing CGA, so you can use it to play games order of cost. It's important to note that on. It provides а display nominally as this isn't to say that one is better than sharp as the Hercules - which is 720 another, they all have specific pixels wide by 350 lines deep. EGA strengths and weaknesses. gives a maximum of 640 pixels wide Most budget PCs are sold with either һу 350 lines deep and will display any а Hercules or a Hercules-clone adapter 16 colours from a palette of 64 and | board and а monochrome monitor can emulate previous IBM displays. Ап | a | (which can be white, amber or green). EGA card costs from £75 to £150 at The boards cost about £45 and the the moment, the uncertainty on the monitor from £70 to around £100 price being due to its rapid replace-
П | depending on size and flexibility. А! ment by VGA. Bargain hunters could ИШНИ! | these prices most сап handle not just. find some EGA goodies over the next A | Hercules signals but CGA and EGA as few months - keep your eyes open. | l———— well, which will display in 16 shades of А monitor suitable for EGA will cost
| grey, amber or green. Believe it or not. from £200 to over £400 depending on shades of one colour can actually be its abilities. You must have a minimum * Make sure the box is big enough to fit it all in! AT clones | | easier to use than real colour. of 0.41mm dot pitch and preferably need a bigger box as the expansion cards are larger. Avoid Colour monitors have three electron 0.31. With the smaller pitch the char- customised smaller units. | guns inside them, one each for red, acters are nearly as well defined as. green and blue. These fire electrons with Hercules, and the display is suit- | through a holed mask at phosphor dots able for continuous use. If you're | | on the screen. The distance apart of offered a cheap EGA card check that it | | these holes gives ће dot pitch - which has at least 128K of RAM fitted or it is one of the most important things you won't work very well. need to know with a colour monitor. The next step up the upgrade path is Another thing to watch is scanning Хо VGA, which offers 640 pixels across. frequency. The higher the frequency by 480 lines and can provide а superb, | the greater the number of lines the near-photographic 256 colour display | screen can display. A monitor capable (from a palette of 16.7 million). A mon- | of displaying the 200 lines of CGA will itor dot pitch of 0.31mm is acceptable | not let you display а higher resolution but 0.29mm is preferable. А VGA card | start hunting round the salesrooms — you won't get any | | 350-ine EGA display. will cost around £160. The monitor will. | support. Buy a part cheap and no-one is going to hold your | | Те third thing of note is the way the Cost at least £200 and can go up to hand while you try to find out how it works, or why this | | Picture signals are sent. Hercules, CGA over £1,000 for a display exceeding
the standard 640 by 480. It's easy to see why EGA is dying on the vine when both EGA and VGA cost about the same | to produce.
Monochrome VGA is becoming a popular alternative to colour. Offering grey scale displays with very high reso- lution, they're pleasant to use and, at around £120, quite pleasant on the wallet to buy.
A lot of folk own Amstrad PC1512s and PC1640s: 1512 owners in particu- lar are often interested in getting a better display. The only adapter they can use is Hercules, which has a differ- ent video memory address from the built-in CGA derivative. The CGA screen can't be turned off - the moni- tor contains the power supply - but the two don't interfere with each other.
Mono 1640s are Hercules compati- ble, but they can be upgraded to any screen you like since the built in graphics adapter can be disabled. Again, you will still need the original monitor for its power supply.
If you are offered any other graphics adapter card at a bargain basement price - one not on the list above - avoid it unless you really know what you're about.
These include manufacturer-specific | Cards that offer extended versions of the existing graphics standards, cards that didn't catch on, like the ill-fated InColor card, and cards designed to ‘support odd monitors- which would involve you in trying to get hold of the the correct display.
The rule in the PC add-on card world is ‘when in doubt, leave it out’.
NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 13 JANUARY 1990 « 5.
BARGAIN HUNTING
D Yt OWN PC
the board supplier or some other named source as this is the trickiest part.
Memory type is important since it comes in so many different forms now. Occasionally boards will need tradi- tional chips (with legs down both sides) but more often they need SIMMs (single in-line memory modules) with a single row of legs. Some boards need specific combina- tions of chips — check with the supplier. Memory prices vary widely but for a full 640K of 120ns (nanosecond) chips — don't buy anything slower for a 10MHz machine — expect to pay around £200. For an AT you will need 100ns RAM or even 80ns RAM. This will cost more.
You may be offered an older XT very cheaply because it only runs at 4.77MHz (the original IBM-specified speed) Depending on the price, buy it and fit a faster motherboard — older XTs are often very well built. But remember that you may not be able to use the existing RAM chips if they are too slow — check the numbers on the chips (the speed in nanoseconds is marked on top) and relace them with faster ones if necessary.
SALE OF THE CENTURY
Making use of existing add-in boards from an older machine is less problematical. On an XT all boards are expected to run at 4.77MHz. Whatever speed the main board runs at the speed of the bus (which carries the sig- nals to the boards) is always set the same. If your bargain machine has a video adapter card, a floppy disk controller ог a hard disk controller you will be able to use them all in the upgrade
specification you may have a few problems. On an AT the bus runs at 8MHz, and some older cards may not be rated to run that fast — though most modern cards will work per- fectly well. The video adapter card will work, as will the floppy disk controller, but the hard disk card may not work without having jumpers on it reset (jumpers are little removable connectors on the board itself that act like switches — sometimes they may actually be switches)
The reason for this is that, on an AT, part of the pro- gram which controls the hard disk interface (the BIOS, which contains built-in operating code) is already in the motherboard AT BIOS — and it will get into conflict with the BIOS on the hard disk card. To prevent this the hard disk card BIOS must be disabled — it's one of those jobs that you need the card documentation to do properly.
input/output cards. It's probably best to budget for replace- ment — but luckily they are among the cheapest cards to buy — probably no more than £15 or so.
Some kind of input/output card is essential. If you are to use a mouse or a modem you will need a serial port — if you want both, two serial ports. A parallel port is necessary if you want to use a printer, as you almost certainly will. Another device which some motherboards lack is a real- time clock. These battery-backed-up devices do away with the annoying MS-DOS time and date prompts, and ensure that file date stamping is accurate. A combined serial, par- allel and clock card should cost around £20, with a serial mouse setting you back another £40 or so.
If the old XT you're upgrading has an original 84-key
key keyboard. Keyboards come іп two types – with the function keys to the left of the QWERTY part, and with the function keys on the top of the keyboard. The latter is the
ust as we would not expect someone who knew nothing about motor cars to build their own from a collection of write-offs, neither do we recommend complete novices to build their first computer using this feature alone - it is directed at current PC users who already understand something about the IBM-compatible's innards and modus operandi
But for those many readers who are thinking about buying their first PC sys- tem but are baffled by talk of proces-
from scratch.
if you upgrade a machine all the way up to an AT |
The other cards that may give problems are serial |
keyboard then you can't carry on using it with an AT card | fitted to your machine — you have to go to a 101- or 102- |
s, buses, slots, display standards clock speeds and the like, Express is
preparing a whole series of features to help them understand PC-compatibles
We will be examining the differences between the original IBM PC and all of the newer standards right up to the 33MHz 80386 systems and beyond; looking at which monitor you need to do the job; at expansion slots, why they may be important and how many you will need; at RAM, ROM, maths co-pro-
correctly, with its function keys and cursor controls.
| * Some old PCs still have the original 84-key keyboard. The more modern 102-key version is needed to run a lot of software.
keyboard is going to cost you at least £45 for a reasonable. one. Don't skimp — you will learn to hate a bad keyboard.
EVER DECREASING CIRCLES Disk drives come in two basic types, floppies and hard disks. Floppies come in two physical sizes, each of which has two different capacities. Hard disks come in an almost unlimited range of variations.
First the 5.25-inch size. Most bargain machines come with a single 360K floppy disk drive fitted, and in many ways this can be regarded as the lowest common denomi- nator. They're often described as half-height devices (boxes are sometimes described as having room to fit two or three half-height devices)
A full-height device is 90mm high by 150mm wide which is the size of the original 360K dive. You'll find old 5,25-inch drives for sale at prices as low as £20, and if you | have the room to fit them they're a bargain. Half-height 360K drives will set you back about £65, but beware of very cheap second-hand drives — they may already have reached the end of their useful life. Best sources for cheap | drives are redundant drives from machines fitted with 1.2Mb 5.25-inch drives.
The 1.2Mb drives have more than three times the capacity of a 360K drive but need more expensive disks to work reliably (though they will read and write a 360K floppy). One of these drives will cost from £90, not a lot of difference but don't forget the controller card needed to run | й – more on those in a moment | The 3.5-inch disk size looks like becoming the stan- dard for the Nineties, which will leave a lot of bargain 5.25- inch drives about. 3.5-inch drives are less expensive and the disks are sturdier. The drives are also a a lot smaller. They come with two capacities, either 720K or 1.44Mb. At the moment the 1.44Mb format uses very expensive media, so it's best avoided. You're unlikely to find any of these going really cheap, but then, a 720K drive costs only | £60 new (a 1.44Mb one will set you back nearer to £90).
There are several things to watch out for when upgrad- ing floppy disk drives. First of all, most controller boards support only two floppies, and budget machines often have boards that only handle 360K drives (cheap, though, at around £15). Controller boards for an XT that can handle
cessors, disk drives, peripherals and lots more besides
Most importantly, we will be helping you to avoid shelling out unnecessary amounts of hard-earned cash on more power than you really need by helping to identify your requirements so that you can read through reviews and advertisements, or visit showrooms, and pick exactly the computer you need at a price you can afford
Prospective PC buyers - watch this space, starting next week
better as there are extra function keys to be used. To buy a |
360K/720K floppy disk combinations start at around £20, all four types at around £30. Cards that can handle hard disks as well start at nearer £100.
The best floppy disk controller cards can handle up to four drives of any type. If you pay the extra for one of these you have the option of buying any drive that looks good, perhaps saving a great deal more money in the long run.
Watch out for machines running versions of DOS ear. lier than 3.3. These earlier versions of DOS don't support floppy disk drives larger than 1.2Mb without special device drivers installed.
BIG WORLD
Hard disks are perhaps the single most popular PC upgrade money can buy; which just goes to show how per- ceptive most PC users are. Going from floppy disks to hard disk is comparable to the change from tape-based machines to disk-based computers — it really is a whole new experience. On the down side it's very difficult to get a really cheap hard disk that's worth having.
The nearest thing to a standard hard disk on the XT is the 20Mb 65ms (65 millisecond access time) hard disk using the 57506 interface and the MFM data encoding
| technique. These can be bought either as a front-mounting
disk with a card controller that fits in a slot or with the whole thing on an add-in card. As long as the card is firmly mounted it doesn't make a lot of difference which you choose – though some computers may be unhappy sup- plying all the power to the hard disk via the motherboard. The cost for either option is about £180.
Although — as discussed — most XT hard disks can be used in an AT, it's best to buy the drive designed for the job, it's less fuss. More important for compatibility is the question of RLL drives. These use a different controller card to encode information on the hard disk more com- pactly and efficiently.
Because the RLL encoding leaves less room for errors, a higher engineering standard is required. Using an RLL controller card with a standard drive will usually appear to work but will not be reliable — the error rate will be unacceptably high after only a short period of use. Only the manufacturer's documentation is a reliable guide to the suitability of a drive for RLL encoding.
On an AT the hard disk drive chosen should have an access time of 40ms or less or it will noticeably cut into the speed gain provided by the faster chip and bus.
One very worthwhile upgrade if you can afford a disk larger than 32Mb is to either DOS 4.0 or to Digital Research DR-DOS 3.41, both of which support hard disks larger than 32Mb in a single partition. Other DOS versions annoyingly make you split the disk into C: and D: drives.
BARGAIN SPOTTING
In the long run the only way to spot a PC bargain is to be оп the look-out for it. You need to scour the small ads in the computer press — our own Shopping Express section is a good place to start. Alternatively show up at auctions where truly amazing deals can be had. Cultivate computer company employees with access to huge discount deals. But most importantly of all, learn your subject. Then you can see the bargain for what it is instantly.
56 « NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS * 13 JANUARY 1990
EXPRESS MAIL
STE fever
After reading all the adverse com- ments about the new STE, | have decided to put forward my views on the new machine.
In terms of sound quality, the STE is well-equipped, with stereo digitised sound for in-game music compared to the beeps produced by normal sound chips (the Amiga's included). For sound effects such as explosions and gunshots the STE
uses the three voice YM2149, which |
excells at those sort of noises. The STE also has the same MIDI ports as the ST, which makes it the best micro for all-round sound. Admittedly the 4,096 colour table will not be much use until applications such as Spectrum 512 and GFA Raytrace are developed to take advantage of it. The argument that the STE only has 16 colours on screen compared to the Amiga's 32
is really pointless as most Amiga |
games only use 16 colours because there's just not enough memory to hold the more colourful screens.
In any case, it would be far sim- pler to change the pallette at various points on screen to get the extra colours, as this takes up less RAM. Both the STE and Amiga have hard- ware scrolling, but due to the way it is implemented on the STE it will be faster than the Amiga. For 3D graph- ics the ST has always been faster than the Amiga due to its 8MHz CPU against the Amiga's 7.14MHz CPU.
Incidentally, the Sinclair QL actually runs faster than the Amiga. Amiga owners can no longer claim that their micro is faster due to its blitter chip, as the STE has got its
the STE is better supported than the Amiga, mainly due to its high-res monitor. The Amiga's multi-tasking OS is of no benefit, as proper multi- tasking requires several megabytes of RAM, and the top-of-the-range А2000 only comes with 1Mb - the same as a 1040 but about £600 more expensive.
In a true multi-tasking OS such as Unix, if one application crashes the others carry on working, but on
| the Amiga the whole system goes off
own, and its fairly obvious that a |
8MHz 68000 and blitter is faster than а 7.14MHz 68000 and blitter. The only advantage that the CBM machine has over the STE is its hardware sprites.
to meditate in limbo. The STE's Desktop is a huge improvement on Workbench, and in 640 x 400 mode it looks even better than the Apple Mac's version.
One huge benefit of the ST range over other micros is that machines come supplied with up to 4Mb of RAM. With the ST range there is a clear upgrade path through the Mega series to the TT
On the serious side of things, | and UXE machines.
Im Piracy ‘worse than killing" and ‘stealing from your own children’
Britain's liveliest computing forum - packed with comment, controversy and conflict. Write and tell us what you think! Reach us at: Express Mail, 30 Monmouth Street Bath BA1 2AP Sorry, no personal replies, even with an sae. This week’s answers by Andy Storer
On the face of it, people should compare the ST range with the Macintosh range, as both are extremely versatile and capable machines, although the ST range costs much less.
The Amiga should be compared with machines such as the Sega Megdrive and the PC Engine, as it's по more than a toy games machine, although it is underpowered com- pared to the consoles.
Matthew Howkins, Leamington Warwicks.
Spa,
And just when you thought you had seen the last of the debate, here it comes again! Whether a difference of 0.86MHz is really of any consequence is beside the point, since for all intents and pur Poses the STE has the same level of specification the Amiga had two years ago. ‘Better late than never’ might be the best comment with which to conclude, but there again Too little too late’ might
be a better one. Maybe Atari should have switched its STE R&D costs to bringing down the price of the TT — then it would have a real Amiga-beater on its hands.
Free PD
In Express issue 58 there is yet another letter complaining about the Price of PD software. You wanted more, so here's one from a librarian
Ҥ you have a Spectrum or a SAM (wishful thinking) then you don't have this problem. You have The Speccy Sector, the best free PD ser- vice for Spectrums and SAMs. The Speccy Sector can offer top quality PD software for nothing but the price of an envelope and some stamps. Need І say more?
| think that PD column is an excellent idea. Of course 1 realise that The Speccy Sector is not in the same league as professional PD ser- vices but it is one of the very few for the Spectrum and the SAM Coupé, and a PD column would alert many Spectrum owners to the benefits of The Speccy Sector. Owen Brown, Chelmsford, Essex
1 have had enough of this annoying subject of pirate software. | have been reading your magazine for a considerable time, and | wish a month would pass with out a least one letter from an ignorant person who is defending this crime - it's worse than killing.
A pirate is stealing a program, which is like tak- ing a life out of the pro- grammer. | should know, because I'm a student in computers myself. You sit for months slaving in front of a screen and on paper, trying to do a program which you think it would be useful to some person out there, trying to make it as good as possible, putting your life and soul into it so you can earn some money to feed your- self and your family (if you have one), and the next thing you know some fat
bastard has copied it and Started selling it for his own profits.
This sort of act makes you want to burst with anger, it's like someone stealing one of your own children. But people like that don't understand these things, they just want to get something for nothing.
1 was reading a letter from a ‘Mr Reluctant Pirate’ in issue 59/60. I'm a student and | know for a fact that no student ever needed to buy a piece of software which is vital for the course, because the fact is that everything is provided for you by the educational institution you study in, therefore there is no need to copy software which you think you need for your course. | have never needed any soft- ware that costs £700, and as for games, if you can
afford the computer you can afford the game. So stop using these petty excuses for a crime that kills the programing profession.
If this goes on any longer, a lot of pro- gramers - and | mean a lot, including myself - will stop producing quality Software, or software alto- gether, and then you will not have any software to copy!
Take Denmark as an example - no software house is prepared to set- up shop there, so hardly any new software reaches them there. Why? Because of people like Mr Pirate. As for backup copies, I'm all for that; I think a per- son who bought a pro- gram has the right to have a backup copy for his own personal use.
1 think people should stop saying that piracy is
OK. In my view pirates are criminals like any other, and they should be locked
gham, Kent
Piracy and theft are al going to exis at Judging by the easing numbers of prison our jails it would si n harsh sentences are
word’ protection d to refer to a manual for.
lot else that can be c
Cunning linguists With reference to the letter in Issue 59/60 headed ‘Different Worlds revealed by a mouse’ | would like to Point out a few inaccuracies on the part of both ‘parties’,
First of all, the differences of Hindi and Urdu are far greater than just having different scripts. For a start Hindi (pure Hindi, not the casual blabber that is) has its roots on Prakmit and Sanskript while Urdu has its roots in Persian and hence not only do their vocabularies vary a great deal, but so do their sentence structures. | should know since one of the A-levels I'm studing is Hindi.
Now about the question of the ‘naksha’ meaning ‘world’ in Hindi - there's no such word in Hindi (inci- dentally in Hindi the words for ‘world’ are lok, prithvi, janani, etc), not even in casual Hindi. However, the word naksha (correctly spelt nagsha) is derived from the Persian word for imprinted, stamp or map.
Incidentally, Hindi for 'map' is ‘disha-patr’.
DS Singh, Ispwich, Suffolk
NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS • 13 JANUARY 1990 » 57
WHELP! Drive trio
I've recently bought an Atari 520STFM complete with two drives and a monochrome monitor. I'm very pleased with this set up, but | would like to add more drive space. The two floppy drives ! already have only provide 1.5Mb formatted. | can't afford a hard drive just yet, so | decided to add a third floppy drive. However, when 1 consulted the man- ча! 1 found that even if there was a third drive socket (which there isn't!), the ST would be unable to control this third drive anyway.
Is this true, or is it somehow possible to connect a third drive to my Atari ST?
D. Bend, Taplow, Bucks.
The Atari ST is equipped with sockets to
control two floppy disk drives and it was never intended that the machine should be connected to more than this number. You can however, connect a third device if you use one of the commercially avail- able drive cable splitters. One of the best of these is that marketed by Club 68000 Ltd. The company has a device which facilitates the connection of up to three drives, and you can choose any of them at the flick of a switch. The device splitter costs £49.95 and is available from Club 68000 Ltd, Suite 1, Wickham House, 2 Upper Teddington Road, Kingston, Surrey КТІ 400.
WHELP! Amiga comms
Can | connect my newly-acquired Psion Organiser XP to my existing Commodore Amiga 500 computer? | would like to be able to transfer
word processor and other files between the two machines but, try as | might, | have been unsuccessful in my attempts to achieve this. | have checked the physical links between the serial ports and they seem to be OK.
Can you make a suggestion as to what might be wrong. Is it me, the hardware or the software?
Andrew Button, Norwich, Norfolk.
If you've checked the physical connec- tions and they appear to be in working order then the fault almost certainly lies in the software. Communications pro- grams are notoriously difficult to config- ure the first time you use them
If you already have some comms software for the Amiga then here's what to do. Connect the two computers via the datalink cable supplied with the Psion Organiser. Boot up the Organiser's comms program and the comms soft ware you are using with the Amiga.
If you don't have any comms soft ware do not buy commercial offerings. There's a huge range of good stuff in the public domain, all available for the price of a disk and copying. Phone Softville on 0705 266509 for a catalogue.
Boot up the Amiga software and set a baud rate of 1200, no parity. Configure the Psion software to equivalent specifi cations, set one machine to transmit the other to receive and Bob's your Aunt's livein lover, you should have two commu-
As a student, | have.
ш}! | wont to use the software from the college PC on my ST
know about PC Ditto. Ditto is
access to a huge range of IBM PC software kept at my polytechnic. Unfortu- nately, | have an Atari ST at home and so | can't. make use of it - or can I? 1 have heard and read about these emulators that allow STers to use PC software as fast as on the original computer. Unfor- tunately, I'm fairly new to computers and I'm not quite sure what | need to perform this emulation. Would ! need to have a 5.25-inch disk drive, or will the PC software work with the 3.5-inch drive? Please help, ! really would like to make use of the college software. R. Bains, Southend, Essex.
Armed with the humble Atari ST, the possibilities for emu- lation — PC or otherwise – are almost endless. Hardware- and software-based PC emu-
lators, hardware Apple Mac and software CP/M emula- tors are all readily available and work well, You don't need to own a 5.254nch drive іп order to access PC software as most of it is now available in 3.5-inch format anyway.
Hardware emulators consist of a circuit board complete with an Intel 8086 central processor chip - the same device that drives the genuine PC – and some RAM memory. Hardware emulators are fast and elegant, and because they have the same physical architecture as any other IBM-PC compatible they work very well.
Software emulators are, as their name implies, pro- grams which employ clever programming methods in order to emulate a target computer. Because they're software-based, speed is lim- ited and they tend not to be quite as compatible with the original as their hardware
counterparts. They are, how- ever, considerably cheaper.
There are two major hardware-based PC emula- tors for the Atari ST. These are PC Speed and Super- Charger. PC Speed is a cir- cuit board which fits inside the case of the ST; It has an V30 8086-compatible CPU but no ВАМ.
Supercharger is almost the same circuit board but with RAM memory and fitted inside its own slim case. Supercharger sits next to the ST and is therefore much easier to set up and operate.
Both devices cost the same (£299) but my money would go to Supercharger. With 512K of RAM on board and no fitting problems it is far better value. Super- charger is available from Con- dor Computers, who you can reach on 0734 819791
If £299 is to you an impossibly large sum, then you might be interested to
a software emulator which has been around for several years. The program is extremely popular and many ST users swear by it. Using some extremely clever pro- gramming techniques, Power Computing (0234 273001), the company responsible for the emulator, have managed to create a program which turns your ST into a PC, mak- ing use of the monochrome and colour monitors or a tele- vision to provide a CGA/MDA compatible display.
Aithough Ditto is slow, it does a very good emulation job and is well worth the £69 purchase price.
So there you are. Hard- ware and software emulation at prices to suit all pockets. You must remember though, that the software is owned by your college and not you! if you make copies of the soft- ware then you'll be stealing — you have been warned.
nicating computers. If you have any fur- ther problems try contacting Psion on 01-723 9408.
wall? Sound Spectrum
1 am the proud owner of a humble Spectrum Plus 3 which although it is now rather tired, can still provide me with a lot of fun. One thing that | find annoying is the sound distortion experienced when using the тү leads. But recently | discovered a method of overcoming this which has restored perfect (perfect? - Uncle TT) sound to my Spectrum and which I'm sure other readers would like to know about.
The Spectrum +3 has load and save sockets as well as the TV out- put sockets owners would normally use. By connecting the save socket to an amplifier using an ordinary phono plug (| use a small amplifier purchased at Tandys for the pur- pose), | have perfect sound from Spectrum games.
There's also the added bonus of being able to make use of a stan- dard pair of headphones if | don't want to disturb the rest of the family. $. Bennet. North Walsham, Norfolk.
wll? Split rate
The embarrassed computer studies teacher in Tech Tips issue 58 was indeed suffering from a well know IBM PC feature. The IBM serial port, and therefore that of compatibles, cannot be set to transmit and receive at different baud rates, hence split baud rates, such as 1200/75, require some kind of kludge to work.
Two methods are in common use. In one the software re-programs the port's baud rate repeatedly, try- ing to keep it running at the appro- priate rate depending on whether you are sending or receiving. This technique works fairly well, but Pro- comm (the software the teacher was using) does not have the capability. The shareware version of Procomm doesnt have viewdata capability either so is useless for accessing Prestel all round.
The second method is to use a modem which has speed buffering. The modem communicates with the computer at 1200 baud in both directions, but converts the outgoing data signal to 75 baud at the tele- phone connection. Most modems made for the UK market and described as Hayes compatible or intelligent will perform this trick. The Datachat 1223 is not one of these.
So as suspected, the software doesn't support the split 1200/75 baud rate. And while the modem does support 1200/75 (the only
58 • NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS • 13 JANUARY 1990
speed it has), it can't communicate with an IBM or clone at that speed. The best solution to this problem is to get a good V22 modem with 1200 baud in both directions. You no longer need split baud rate for Pres- tel as they have finally decided to get in step with the rest of the world. You still need viewdata software though. With this in mind | would rec- ommend Transend Plus, which is reasonably priced, has possibly the best viewdata implementation, and can even trick manual modems into working in a fake split speed mode on an IBM serial port. Transend Plus can be obtained from Messiter Soft- ware on 01-449 2994. Lolo Davison, Scubbets, Gloucester.
ETIP Rodent pied
If the small slippy feet of the mouse rodent fall off due to frantic scrub- bing action of mouse owners who do not have a mouse mat and use their rodent on a desktop, then an excel- lent solution is to use double-sided sticky tape and PTFE (polytetrafluo- roethane) plumbers tape to effect a repair. One roll of each of these tapes will repair 500 mice.
Any non technical readers can send their mice to me wrapped tightly in a new £5 note for postage. J. Broadhead, Gladstone House, 14 Gladstobe Street, Ibstock, Leicestershire LE6 INH.
WHELP! Good Citizen
I have a Citizen 120D printer which | have been using with a Spectrum Plus 2 computer. The printer there- fore has a serial interface and when connected to the RS232/MIDI port operated with some success.
1 have now decided to buy an Atari 520STFM but wish to keep my present printer.
Can you please tell me whether I can use my printer with the Atari? | have made enquiries with various firms and have had different replies. | would like to know if | can obtain а lead to connect the computer and printer and then use all the software available or whether ! will have to obtain a parallel interface for the printer.
A. Oliver, Port Talbot, West Glamorgan.
The Atari ST is equipped with both a par- allel port and an industry standard serial port which will indeed enable you to con- nect the Citizen 120D to the machine. You don't need any special software, Cables or settings. You must obtain a standard RS232 cable from your local Computer store (price around £10) or from one of the many advertisers in Shopping Express. Using this cable the printer will connect directly to the ST and you'll be able to use it with almost all commercially available software.
Do remember to re-configure word processor and other programs, as theyre usualy shipped pre-set for use with parallel printers.
The Citizen 120D is a popular and robust printer that should offer many years of service.
m=BUG Truly impossible
Impossible Mission 2 is a great game for the IBM PC, but you must keep the disk in the drive throughout
the game. If you take it out and put it back in after you have saved the game onto another disk, then one directory of files is erased!
You must keep the program disk in the drive and save games onto the original disk.
Michael Sawa, Basildon, Essex.
ETIP Football fun
1 am writing with some tips for TV Sports Football. When your opponent is attempting a kick, either an extra point or a field goal, press [Alter- nate] and [Help]. This causes him to miss every time. If you want to gain fast yardage select Fake Punt. Then throw in front of your left wide receiver. He will be unmarked for about 20 yards, unless you try this too near your opponents goal.
it is very frustrating that you cannot edit your team during the season. If you have a disk editor you can alter the players attributes by selecting the Teamdata.fb file.
You can change teams to either
human or computer control by changing the byte immediately before the quarterbacks name to either 01 or 00. The player's attributes are the four bytes immediately before the name of the following player. They are speed, strength, hands and ability with ratings of 01 to 08. Of course you could cheat and give your play- ers all eights.
Needless to say, don't alter your original disk. Use a back up of your league disk.
G. Hackett, Crosby, Liverpool.
ЇР! RAM upgrade
Гуе been trying to get my Atari 520 STFM upgraded to a 1040 and thought I'd struck lucky when I found a firm in Leeds who said they could perform this operation for the very reasonable price of £69.95 fitting and all. Alas when they opened up the ST, it turned out to be a ‘fiat top’. What? Yet another suspense mystery from our beloved Atari Corporation.
No doubt you know all about these flat tops but 1 wonder how many other users do. | was told that the chip to upgrade these was not the usual chip and that the fitting was far more complicated.
| bought my Atari 520 from the Evesham Micro stand at the Ally Pally show during November 1988 and was assured that | would have no trouble upgrading. Huh!
Anyway:
1. Can you explain what a flat top is?
2. The difference in the chip for upgrading?
3. Do you know of anyone in the Leeds/Manchester area who can do upgrades for the sort of machine that I have?
4. Is there any other way | can increase the memory of my
520STFM such as using the car- tridge port, and if so, who should | contact to do it?
By the way, | took a friend's 520ST into the same firm at the same time. His wasn't a flat top and they did the job in about three hours and it works perfectly. The work also has a six month's guarantee. For £70 it must be the best deal around. So if you're prepared to give ‘em a plug, they're called Altra and they live at 629 Roundhay Road, Leeds 8. John Morris, Leeds.
1. There is no such thing as a ‘flat top’. This is some strange invention on the part of Altra to describe surface- mounted chips. On many STs, the RAM can upgraded by simply plugging chips into sockets already present on the main motherboard. However, some machines have surface-mounted RAM chips, That is, there are no sockets, instead, chips are soldered directly onto the mother- board. These are far more difficult to upgrade ~ there are no sockets!
2, 3 and 4. You can still upgrade the ST's memory quite easily whatever kind of chip mounting the machine employs. Third Coast Technologies (0257 426464) market a little circuit board which fits over the MMU (Memory Management Unit) chip, upgrades the memory to 1Mb and is easy to fit. It can be upgraded by a further megabyte sim- ply by exchanging a couple of chips on the circuit board at a later date. The device costs a little over 210010
WHELP! Му CPC won't talk fo me anymore when | play games
Гожп a humble Amstrad CPC464 and I have a ‘speech synthesiser for it. When | first got the com- puter and synthesizer all was well, but now on some games I have, the com- puter or something just makes them crash (i.e. Battey, Gauntlet Il etc). | am wondering whether it is the synthesizer inter- face or the computer, because when I take the interface out there is no problem on Gauntlet Il. Why does this happen?
1 ат also having a problem with the built in data recorder which doesn't load all of my soft- ware. | got a cassette head cleaner and the games loaded so | played them. Next day when | went to load them they wouldn't. So | bought a cassette head straightener
* Problems with tape head alignment and speech synthesis on the Amstrad CPC 464
and for about two months they continued to load. But now they're refusing to load again. Is it the grotty tape player or is it the fault of that grotty com- puter again?
S. House, Dorchester, Dorset.
The first problem could be caused by the synthesiser interface stealing cycles from the Z80 CPU (central pro- cessing unit) in your com-
puter. This means that the 780 checks all the ports to determine just what is con- nected to your CPC464. When it comes across the ‘synthesizer interface it is made to give up more time than it intends to, and conse- quently, software which is running at the same time can be made to crash. This is borne out by the fact that when you disconnect the interface, software runs per- fectly. Don't worry. There's nothing wrong with your com-
puter or speech synth. You just have rather a boring chore disconnecting ће synth before using commer- Cial games software.
The second problem is – as you rightly ascertained — to do with the alignment of the heads. The angle at which the read/write head meets the tape is known as the azimuth angle and must be at 90 degrees i.e. the head must be at right angles to the tape. If not, then signals ema- nating from the tape are
severely distorted making it impossible for the poor old CPC to understand what it is the cassette player is trying to say.
Try using your head alignment tool regularly and always keep the head clean by using a proprietory head Cleaning fluid and a cotton ‘swab.
If you play a music tape and adjust the azimuth while it is playing, you'll get best results from the computer when the sound is sharpest.
NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS « 13 JANUARY 1990» 59
THE WINNERS
ICHRISTMAS COMPETITION
Here they are, the winners of £12,000-worth of goodies | from our Christmas Competition.
Our thanks to the companies that so generously provided their products as prizes: Natscha, Evesham Micros, Westoning, MGT, Mention, Star, Microillusions, Coktel Vision, CTW, Powerplay, Electronic Arts, Activision, CRL, Nextbase, Micronet, Impressions, Atari, Virgin/Mastertronic, US Gold, and CodeMasters.
Batman Pack — David C Isaacs, Berkshire | Olivetti PCI — Chris Ward, Northampton
PC Engine and five games — Kayle Garkut, South Wales SAM Coupé — Т Thompson, West Midlands
Atari Lynx — Yarko Blahyj Derby; Richard Coleman, Ayrshire; D T MacPherson, West Sussex; Chris Lamb, | Dorset; Kenneth Rane, Gloucester |
Sega Super System – Andy Pickerin, Staffordshire Amiga Monitor — M A Stubbs, Plymouth 25 US Gold Games - Daniel Hailstone, Northants
US Gold Compilation - Mr M Wilson, Hull; Martin Ritson, Morayshire; Ornette Wilson, London; lain Holloway, Bedfordshire; Paul Taylor, Leics; D Stanford, Derbyshire; Wesley Ditch, Hampshire; John McElroy, Herts; John Oliver, Suffolk; Thomas Irvine, Co. Down; | E Campbell, Lancs; Mr A G Bowler, Kent; J F Campey, Middlesex; M A Smith, Colchester; Gregory Searle, Hants
Code Masters CD compilation — Mr Howard Coe, Kent; Filip Landuyt, London; Mike Betts, Somerset ; Willie Lawrie, Perth; Roger Glover, Glasgow; M A Stanley, Hants; ‘Adam Whittle, Cambs; Peter Roznowski, Derby; Jim Wyatt, Swadlincote; Alan Walsh, Sussex; Jonathan Nurse, Bristol; Thomas McAteer, Glasgow; A Howard, Plymouth; Dr Clare Jenkins, Powys; Kevin Paul Davies, Gwent
Kenny Dalglish game — M J Simmons, Twickenham; Nick Edelsten, Bucks; P J Perry, Surrey; Kevin Lucas, London; | Greg Hughes, West Midlands; Frank McCartney, Denny; Mat Broomfield, Essex; Rick Billson, Staines; Andrew Moulding, Cambridgeshire; Sean Laird, Scotland
Asterix game - P J R Dell, Bristol; Paul Finer, Middlesex; Mr D F Tremlin, Somerset; Раш Manning, Derbyshire; Zoran Lazic, London; Martyn Jenkins, London; Stuart Lee, Bristol ; Раш! Beecham, London; David McKnight, Co Down; W Johns, Essex
Virus Killer — James Westall , East Sussex; Mr R Thomas, Bristol; J E Calder, Tyne & Wear; Mr R Wells, London; David Robinson, Middlesex; Mark Beevers, West Yorkshire; S Inchliffe, Co Durham; Mr J B Southar, Milton Keynes; Сап Hunt, Leicester; Раш! Lipiec, London; Р Fisentzon, London; Barry Duell, Newcastle Upon Tyne; M Munday, Kent; Stephen Hilder, Essex; Mr J P Lincoln, London; Mr A J Featherstone, London; David Craggs, Durham; G Smith, Nottingham; Stephen Rae, London ; Mr Anthony Shemmans, Cornwall Phil Golding, Cornwall; Ronnie Randall, London; Mr Julian Ruse, Kent; Emyr Bodfel Jones, Gwynedd; Mr Allen Dewsnap, Derbyshire; C Clements, Cambs; Hayden Ward, Gwynedd; Paul Bigland, | Clwyd ; Graham Ruston, Birmingham; John Hamer, North Yorkshire
Lancaster game — Kevin Rickard, Cornwall; Neil Warwick, Berks; Katie Williams, Wirral; J Edwards, Essex; Julie Bates, Cornwall; Gordon Hindhaugh, Tyne & Wear; Mike Pearson, Fife; Mr S R Perks, South Wales; Danny Bartlett, Kent; Danny Newton, Kent
Autoroute – Terry Sankey, West Midlands; Terence Egan, West Yorkshire; Andrew Hilder, West Sussex; Eric Murray, London ; S Knafler, Lincoln; John McGhee, Glasgow; Mick Jones, West Sussex; Mark McLean, Hants; C Jones, Reading; G J Salt, West Yorkshire.
CTW Year Book — James Burns, Scotland; Mr C Smith, West Yorks; Sam Comley, Cheshire; G H Flower, Chester; W В Atterby, Herts; Mr Р Shadmy, Glosters; Н Wrake, Dorset; David Robson, Lancs; lan Collins, Devon; E J Bowman, Norfolk
Micronet Sub – Michael Smith, Staffs; Rory Johnson, | Surrey
COMPETITION WINNERS
It's time for those of you who entered our £12,000 Christmas competi- tion to discover if you should be watching out for the postman for the next few days. Please allow at least 28 days to receive your prizes – we cannot answer any queries before then.
Music X – Richard Balatoni, London; Steven Howells, W. Glam
Photon Paint — Mr E M Ohara, West Yorkshire; Mr P Gallagher, Surrey
Faery Tale - C Н Reeves, Southampton; Harold Rohmann, London; David Rawlinson, South Yorks; Rod Pickin, West Yorks
Quartet - Leslie Morgan, London; Stephen Wan, Northamptonshire; P Leetham, North Yorkshire; Paulo Goliveia, London; Grenville Bramley, Nottingham
Dynamite Dux – А Е G Wiggins, Oxford; Miss Elizabeth Dron, Surrey; S Miller, Gloucester ; R E Wiseman, Cambs; Mark Fletcher, Glasgow; R Sturey, Leics; Joe Dyke, Cornwall; Paul Campbell, Huddersfield; Jason Moulding, Somerset; J A Riddell, Kent
Altered Beast – Jeremy Baker, Derbys; Nick Humphries, Essex; Mr K A Beman, Manchester, Mr B Hobson, Huddersfield; Robert Watson, Wiltshire; Paul Wyld, West Midlands; Mr R Thornley, Darlington; Ali Mohiuddin, London; D Healy, Bristol; M J Coates, Norfolk
ST Format subscription — Matthew Bowden, Berks; John Woodcock, Surrey; Harry Sideras, Birmingham; Darren Newnham, London; Paul Drew, Wilts
Amiga Format subscription – Edward Dunn, Co Durham; Nick Howell, Glos.; Michael Taylor, Cornwall; Paul Thompson, Nottingham; Nick Taylor, Sunderland
Amstrad Action subscription – Mr М А Wilson, Somerset; Farhan Masoni, Clementhorpe,; Stuart Carter, Wilts; Mr D Ellis, Hants; lan Fare, Lancs
PC Plus subscription – Mrs Cutting, Hampshire; Mark Woodward, Staffs; Mr R F Hancox, Glos; Bob Murdach, Dundee; Bob Bailey, Liverpool
Star Printer — Paul Meehan, Dublin
Naksha Mouse — Andrew Auty, Yorkshire; P M C Ellis, Stockport; John McGuffin, Scotland; Sam Alexander, Shropshire; Mr S McLeod, Manchester; А R Mason, Luton; Mr J Mcllwaine, Belfast; Philip Beed, Hants; Mr | R Brown, Cleveland; J A Nixon, Co Down
Super Joystick – Burt England, Northampton; Peter Kempley, Hants; Eric Sheldon, Newcastle on Tyne; Mr D Fincher, West Midlands; Phil Reilly, Manchester; Mark Haggett, Somerset; Bruie Stewart, Tayside; James Abram, West Midlands; Mrs Janice Charley, Cheshire; Howard Marshall, Herts; Colin Belcher, Berks; Darren Stokes, Surrey; Ken Turner, Derbyshire; Кай Grinbergs, Derbyshire; Bryan Кеппепеу, Clwyd; Mr P Н Douglas, Surrey; Mr A Livesey, Manchester; Andrew King, Leicester; Neil Walters, Leeds; C N Dack, Norwich; Alan Holderness,
South Yorkshire; Thomas Cuckson, Blackpool; E Н Thompson, London; A D Brown, East Lothian; John Firth, West Sussex Mr J R Newell, Glasgow; Andrew McCreadie, Glasgow; A Earroud, Sussex; Stephen Boyd, Glasgow; Mr P C Batterson, Fife; Terry French, Hants; P D Edwards, Dorset; John Steven Mason, Hants; Richard Cole, Dorset; Geoffrey Chan, Surrey; Mr A T Reid, Lancs; Glyn Wade, Staffs; W Tyler, Leeds; Mr P G Spear, Cheshire; Dave Hornby, Clwyd; Mr Simon Barrow, Dorset; Mr E R Burns, West Yorkshire; Colin Barden, West Yorkshire; Mike Garaway, Lancs; Michael Newton,
| Manchester; Mr F Ashley, West Midlands; Michael Holliday,
Lancashire; Simon Hiscocks, South Glamorgan; Nial Grimes, Dyfed; John C Whitehead, Bristol
Таре Rack – Mr R G Russell, Gwent; Trevor Wright, Leics; Matthew Wilson, East Sussex; Raymond Daley, West Midlands; Mr F A Birt, Gloucester; S Waine, Lancs; Steve Pittman, Sussex; Edward Graham, Leicestershire; Colin Р D Gregory, Notts; Mr Melvin Fletcher, Nottingham; Gavin Brown, South Yorks; Dominic Ramsey, Bucks; James Lawson, Leeds; T R Molyneux, Liverpool; Mr R Hendra, Dyfed; Fred Fee, Gwent; Justin Wood, Lancs; Mr G W Spencer, Barnstone; David Cartwright, Sheffield; Paul Larkin, Herts; Mr K B Davies, Liverpool; John R Hudson, Huddersfield ; A M Long, London; Steve Spry, North Devon; Calum Benson, Lancashire; E W Fairweather, Lincoln; Mr Brian Privett, London; Mr J Harrison, Stoke on Trent; Р В Settle, Warwickshire; Timothy Blacklock, Sheffield; Stephen Banks, Essex; J Storey, Leics; Allan Turnbull, Devon; Pete Lay, Leicester; R Herbert, Leics; Matthew Taylor, Lancs; David Griffiths, Yorkshire; David Hancock, Cleveland; Dave Myall, Essex; lain Stone, Hants; Robert N Young, Norwich; Nicholas Haworth, Cambs; Mr B Logue, Cheshire; Steve Ford, Cornwall; Mr E Ashmore, Derbyshire; Rafael Jay, Bath; Niall A Bramball, Southampton; D Н Arbuckle, Essex; Michael Yau, Manchester; P J Cowean, London.
If your name doesn't appear among the winners printed оп this page, don't despair, it's not too late!
The winners of £1,700-worth of top-notch Electronic Arts games are still to be chosen in a special extra draw. Electronic Art's produce a vast range of games for all mod els of computer, so you are in with a chance of picking up а copy of top software like Skate or Die, The Bard's Tale. or the Archon Collection:
The winners will be chosen from the original entrants , so watch out for next week's Express - it could be your turn to win a game!
BD • NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS « 13 JANUARY 1990
920ST-FM SUPER PACK
ARCADE GAMES
Imagine £19.95 Beyond The Ice Palace Elite £19.95 Black Lamp Firebird £19.95 Buggy Elite £19.95 Chopper X. Mastertronic £9.99 Ikari Warriors Elite £14.95 Marble Madness Electronic Arts £24.95 Quadralien Logotron £19.95 Ranarama Hewson Consultants £19.95 Retum To Genesis Firebird £19.95 Roadwars Melbourne House £19.95
ST COMPUTERS
The range of Atari ST computers offers something for everyone. From the games enthusiast who wants the challenge of the very best in arcade action, fo the businessrian whe wami in make financial forecasts or faultless presentations. The ST offers high quali graphice sound and speed for the gamer, whilst providing a fast, user friendly and affordable тишеп үрү нуж £1095 Сс ОТ eee ү m environment and boasts a wealth пева Firebird £995 fg 9f Users in education, local government, television, and a variety of dieren, toi мейі
Software for the range stretches to cover applications as diverse as ENTERTAINMENT, Thundercats Elite £19.95 I ACCOUNTS, ART, COMMUNICATIONS, COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN, DATABASES, Wizball Ocean £19.95 [| DESKTOP PUBLISHING, EDUCATION, MUSIC, PROGRAMMING SPREADSHEETS, WORD Xenon Melbourne House £19.95 [| PROCESSING and more. For a full list of the software walleblor ds moins details of the ST Zynaps Hewson Consultants £19.99 Ё range, complete and return the coupon below, Al prices сотка! ha trme of org o press СОЕ
SPORTS SIMULATIONS
The Atari Super Pack is ideal for you If you want 1o get ой 1o а tying stan Eddie Edwards Super Ski Elite £19.95 with the bost in entertainment software. The Bele a S20ST-FM Seconds Out Tynesoft £19.95 win RAM, a ultn ТМ dak dive ог G0 oop games and a Summer Орг
Joystick. if you buy the Super Paci Иса Shop, we will add our own ST о ы Tynesoft £19.95
Sane ка (woh over £200) Fres OF Charge Roum ne ороп! бюз — PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE Organiser Triangle Publishing £49.95 JOYSTICK Atari CX40 Joystick Atari Corp £499
~ FREE ATARI BUNDLE VALUE:£458.97 With SM124 mono monitor: #4985 With SC1224 colour monitor: £698 1$
WITH BUILT-IN 1Mb DISK DRIVE
520ST-FM EXPLORER PACK |
NOW WITH TV
For the serious home user and the small business, we are Pleased to announce а new package J040ST-FM. The 1040ST-FM has ‘Mbyte RAM and a 1Mbyte built-in disk drive. In addition, the 1040ST-FM пом com ps теси раска (mei previously avaliable T040ST-F was designed for use with monis м FM computer, the arcade game Ranarama, aliu he AOST- (o be Reset rni adulator desktop accessories. In addition, if you buy the Explorer Pack from Silica. we will domes ТУ sel and comes complet wi a end 19 give you the Silica ST Starter Kit worth over £200, FREE OF CHARGE Ret thu allow you to do so. new 'Professional Pack' from. il . alow you о do ао, rhe пем “Protea rom , 5 Coupon for details of our Starter Kit and of the full ST range.
Jour high quality software packages including a spread- < sheet, database, word processor and programming lang- M =
This ‘Professional Pack’ software will enable you to 1 й get straight down to business with your new computer. In i; Addition to this software (worth £384.84), И you buy the / Professional Pack from Silica Shop, you will also receive. mpm the Silica ST Starter КИ (worth over £200), Free Of Fon DES Charge. Return the coupon for further information,
4 К WRITE
+ SM124 mono monitor: £398 $ + SC1224 colour monitor: £598 {i INCLUDING VAT
With SM124 mono monito 5980 LESS DISCOUNT: - £385.82 With SC1224 colour monitor: £798%¢| ^ PROFESSIONAL PACK PRICE: £499.00 you buy it. There are MANY companies who can offer PROFESSIONAL PACK: Free business software
| 2Mb & 4Mb MEGA ST [cro реон yr | PROREBONAL МОК, гт» Маго котан
" Ша ia FENER compres re cao Pe | обсте MEGA ST uh Ton Sie pe NEGA GT oran in is RANTES Ra Urge ct vor one ana ырп aes | DEDICATED SERVICING: 7 ane Mar vars олноо ву a coed betont eas eene абон with а separale CPU,
and help when you need it. There is ONLY ONE + опе with 2Mbytes of RAM and the other with 4Mbytes. Each version has а 1Mbyte Company who can provide the largest range ol Alan st | THE FULL STOCK RANGE: All of your Aiari double sided disk drive built-in to the CPU unit. The MEGA ST's do not come with
related products in the UK, a full time Atari ST t| ате Bor саре: modulator built-in and must therefore be used with а monio Wi ane соле мі : hc lp and Lr e А GT эрни | eps SALES SUPPORT: Tra мал a Purchased, we will add the ‘Professional Pack software (worth £38489) detailed luding free newaletiers and brochures deer ic урн | dedicated to lp you get fe ben Vom yn ‘above, plus the Sil- door for as long as you require after you purchase your | FREE CATALOGUES: Mailed direct to your home ice ST Starter Kit р E computer. That one company в Sia Shop. We have | as soon as we print tem, featuring ohun as wl (worth over £200) been established in the home computer field for ten years | 35 all of the new releases. both Free Of Charge. with an annual tumover in excess of £8 million and can | FREE OVERNIGHT DELIVERY: On all hardware Return the coupon + топо monitor=£998 | + mono monito: now claim fo meet Our customers requirements waren | orders ИОМ ie D RE for further details. *colour monitor-£1198 |*colour monito: 1498
[DTP PageStream £149...
But don't just take our word for it. Complete and return | etitors on а зате product same price’ basis. the coupon below for our latest literature and begin to | FREE TECHNICAL HELPLINE: Full time team of Common aisting (DTP) is one of the fastest growing applications for personal | * TEXT-FLOW AROUND GRAPHICS Computers. We are pleased to announce а powerful low cost package for the Alan ST
experience the Silica Shop specialist Atari service. Atari technical experts always at your service. Called PageSiream. PageStream costs only £149 (-VAT-EI7135) and, because 1 works with ап Atari 10067 and а Seikosha SP-I80AI printer, you can be up and
OMPATIOE Paratus, бори эмет for, less than £1000 Some oj the festes of | = WITH EVERY ST - RETURN COUPON FOR’ DETAILS iram campia anne ae wai ee maton on га [А ALL PRICES QUOTED INCLUDE FREE UK DELIVERY
To: Slica Shop Ltd, МСЕ 0190 _1-4 The Mews, Hatherley Road, Sidcup, Kent, ОА14 4DX
If you already own an Atari ST computer and would like to be registered on our mailing list as an PLEASE SEND FREE LITERATURE ON THE ATARI ST ST user. let us know. We will be pleased to send you copies of our price lists and newsletters
EREE OF CHARGE as they become available. Complete the coupon and return it to our Sidcup branch and begin experiencing a specialist ST service that is second to попе
SIDCUP (& Mail Order) 01-309 1111 2-4 The Mews, Hatherley Road, Sidcup, Kent, DAi4 4DX OPEN: MON-SAT Sam-530pm ^ LATE NIGHT: FRIDAY 9am - 7pm LONDON 01-580 4000 22 Tottenham Court Road, London, WIP OBA OPEN: MON-SAT 9.30am -&00pm — LATÉ NIGHT: NONE NCE 0190 Postcode 01 LONDON 01-629 1234 ext 3914 Selfridges (1st floor), Oxford Street, London, W1A ТАВ Do you already own a computer DTP O ОРЕМ: MON-SAT Sam -6.00pm LATE NIGHT: THURSDAY 9am - 8pm If so, which one do you own?
Belore you decide when lo buy your new Atari ST | SILICA STARTER KIT: Worth over £200, FREE Computer, we Suggest you consider very carefully WHERE | with every Atari ST computer bought trom Silica
Mr/Mrs/Ms: Initials Surname:
Il Address
Why a les
ad Atari resisted the temptation to fly in H batches of STEs to the UK months ahead of
schedule, and instead launched the machine only when the software houses had truly accustomed themselves to the technology, then the frustrating incompatibility problems already being suffered by users would not have been so acute.
The inescapable fact is that Atari, in its desire to sup- ply the Christmas market, has caused a New Year disorder which everybody could well do without.
It is well known that much of the firm's efforts at the end of last year were directed at getting STs into the UK, and correcting ‘patchy availability’. But the premature intro- duction of the upgraded machine has given largely unpre- pared software houses a real headache and caused confusion among new users.
The publishers were given their first chance to poke around the STE last summer. Many games written or released before then have been proved to be incompatible. Even games launched as recently as Stunt Car Racer (November) are in difficulties — much of the code had been written before Microprose was presented with an STE.
It is obvious that programmers have unwisely decided to ignore many of Atari's warnings concerning the dangers of disregarding technical specifications. But that cannot be a surprise to anyone given the exploratory nature of our talented games writers.
Predictably, Atari is attempting to distance itself from the confusion and sticking to the line that the machine is 100 per cent compatible with the ST. As far as it goes, this statement is undoubtedly true, in that the machine is entirely in line with the ST's technical specifications, but what it fails to say is that the STE is not 100 per cent com- patible with dozens of leading software packages.
PREMATURE INJECTION
Atari must have realised that there would be inconsisten- cies. Why wasn't more done to avoid this mess? While it is true that the software houses are almost entirely responsi- ble for the glitches which are now coming to light, it is ће premature injection of an unspecified number of STEs on to the market which has left users out on a limb, thrown the programmers into a panic and lent an unfortunate air of amateurism to the emergence of what should be an excel- lent machine.
Perhaps it has been thrust upon us by circumstance. By next autumn, when the STE should have been arriving, most games on the market would have been STE-compati- ble anyway. The problem would not have been so immedi- ate, even though old copies of many games would still have been incompatible.
As it is, the software houses have been rushed into making changes to their products. To its credit, Anco man- aged to get an STE-compatible version of Kick Off onto the streets within 10 days of hearing about problems.
Many other companies, wise to the strange actions of hardware manufacturers, have moved quickly. And, by and large, users stuck with incompatible games will get a free replacement from the relevant software houses.
But it's still all a hassle for the end consumer. And as every day passes, it emerges that more and more pack- ages are incompatible. Express reader Andy Richardson claims as we go to press that he has found 20 incompati-
brusque approach by Atari to the STE's problems with compatibility would help set user
minds at rest
ble games on top of those reported in this week's news pages. These include Barbarian 2 (Palace), Colossus Chess X, Licence to Kill, Starglider, Weird Dreams and Operation Wolf.
Further details are also emerging as to the nature of the problems. It is now said that certain models of external 3.5-inch drives will not work. It is also reckoned to be impossible to boot up in medium resolution, even after sav: ing the Desktop in medium resolution. Richardson quotes a leading ST dealer as saying a program will be available by February which will rectify this.
But over the coming weeks more bugs will be appearing and more disastifaction will emerge with Atari's brusque handling of the situation. The delight of some STE owners at having bought the new machine is already turn- ing to disgruntlement at being, willy nilly, guinea-pigs and fault-finders for the industry.
It is more than likely that Atari's UK boss, Bob Gleadow, brought the STEs in as a last resort, and even then was reluctant to do so. The existence of the 520STE was only acknowledged by Atari last November, and given previous problems with upgrades (the last as little as two years ago) the firm must have suspected the worst.
Опе can only hope we don't see further supplies of the STE for some months to come, and that users, dealers and publishers are given more time to prepare for its offi- cial arrival.
TAKE CARE
Unfortunately, if you own an STE it's up to you to take care when choosing programs. Where possible, check with pub: lic domain suppliers in particular when buying programs from them. It is estimated that some 60 per cent of pro- grams are incompatible with the STE and an even higher percentage of demos. Over the next few months the sup- pliers of such programs will be as keen as anyone to secure STE-compatible demos and programs and to reduce those astonishing figures.
Most have spent the past few weeks checking through their libraries in order to separate incompatibles from compatibles.
When you are buying from dealers, look out for STE- compatible stickers or simply ask for advice.
If you are looking for an ST, either buy an STFM — Atari says it will be shipping these for most of this year — or accept beforehand that you are going to have problems with your STE for weeks and probably months to come.
There is little that this column can suggest for Atari to do now. The mistakes have already been made. We might wish, though, that the company rethought its policy of effectively washing its hands of the problem. Perhaps Atari feels that the public relations value of, say, offering Free- post facilities to punters who need to exchange software would be more than outweighed by the demands of financ- ing and administering it. But it would cost the company nothing to state publicly that it was concerned about users problems and regretted that they had arisen.
No doubt the day will come when STE owners reach the conclusion that the delights of their souped-up machine made all of this hassle much more than worthwhile. But while they are saddled with the problem of waiting for things to work and then exchanges to come through, even a verbal gesture of good will would be appreciated. li
UL STORY
PCs: THE FI
WICH ST Dre?
GAMES FOR THE NINETIES,
columns ommodor
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62 • NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS • 13 JANUARY 1990
TENSTAR PACK
WORTH OVER £229!
C= Commodore
к Д | FREE! - ART OF CHESS - by SPA
+VAT
£399
INCLUDES 2346 FREE UK
DELIVERY The Amiga 500 is one of a new breed of technologically advanced computers, which are now emerging as the new standard for home computing, based around the new Motorola
68000 chip. The A500 has 512K RAM and a 1Mbyte double
sided disk drive built-in. It can be connected directly to a wide range of monitors, or to a domestic TV set through a TV modulator. Designed with the user in mind, the A500 features a user friendly WIMP environment and comes supplied with a free mouse. And, when you buy your Amiga from Silica Shop, the UK's No! Amiga specialists, you will experience an after sales Service that is second to none, including a technical support helpline and free newsletters and price lists. Return the coupon
below for our current information pack, which will give details of
buy it. There are ч peripherals and companies who can offer a wide range of products for your computer as well as expert advice and help when you need it There is ONLY ONE company who can provide the largest range of Amiga re
specialist technical helpi
'd products in the UK, a full time Amiga ter sales support, including
опе company is Silica puter feld for ten years ments with ап accuracy
are just some of the
THE FULL STOCK RANGE: The largest range of Amiga felated peripherals, accessories, books and software in the UK
AFTER SALES SUPPORT: The statt at Silica Shop are dedicated to help you to get the best from your Amiga.
FREE NEWSLETTERS: Майей direct to your home as soon as we print them, featuring offers and latest releases
FREE OVERNIGHT DELIVERY: Оп all hardware orders shipped to Silica Shop customers within the UK mainland
PRICE MATCH PROMISE: We will normally match our Competitors offers on a ‘same product same price’ basis.
FREE TECHNICAL HELPLINE: Full time team of Amiga technical experts to help you with your technical queries.
But don't just take our word for it. Complete and return the coupon below for our latest Amiga literature and begin to experience the Silica Shop specialist Amiga service
the Silica service and the very latest Silica Amiga offers. E&OE
PHOTON PAINT PACK
A500 Computer £399.99 TV Modulator £24.99 Photon Paint £69.95 TenStar Pack £229.50 TOTAL RRP: £724.43
LESS DISCOUNT: £325.43
PACK PRICE ::: £399
10845 MONITOR PACK
A500 Computer £399.99
When you buy the Amiga 500 from Silica Shop, you will not only get а high power, value for money computer, we will also give you some spectacular free gifts. First of all, we are now including а TV modulator with every А500 stand alone keyboard, so you can plug your Amiga straight into your TV at home (ће modulator is not included with the A500+A1084S pack as it is not required lor use with monitors). Secondly, we have added a free copy of Photon Paint, an advanced graphics package with an RAP of £69.95. Last (and by no means least!), so that you can be ир and running straight away, we are giving away the sensational TENSTAR GAMES PACK with every А500 purchased at Silica Shop. This pack features ten top Amiga titles which have a combined RAP of nearly £230! Return the coupon tor details.
When you buy your Amiga 500 Amegas
trom Silica Shop, we want о An QI Chess 1084S Colour Monitor £299.99 | | maie sue you оч те best Barbarian, Ult Warrior Photon Paint £69.95 | | зе giving away the TENSTAR Buggy Boy
Ikari Warriors Insanity Fight Mercenary Comp Terrorpods
GAMES PACK worth nearly £230, absolutely FREE with every А500 purchased from us. The TenStar Games Pack inc- ludes ten titles for the А500,
TenStar Pack £229.50
TOTAL RRP: £999.43
Thundercats
each individually packaged in vim stmenons Wizball
its own casing with instructions.
LESS DISCOUNT: £350.43 PACK PRICE ::: £649
If you already own an Amiga computer and would like to be registered on our mailing list as an
of our price lists and newsletters роп and return it to our Sidcup branch and begin experiencing a specialist Amiga service thal is second to none.
‘Amiga user, let us know. We will be pleased to send you со FREE OF CHARGE as they become available. Complete th
SIDCUP (& Mail Order)
1-4 The Mews, Hatherley Road, Sidcup, Kent, DAT4 4DX
OPEN: MON-SAT 9am - 5 30pm
To: Silica Shop Ltd. Dept МСЕ 0190 1-4 The Mews, Hatherley Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 4DX
PLEASE SEND ME FREE LITERATURE ON THE AMIGA
LATE NIGHT: FRIDAY 9am - 7pm
LONDON
52 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1P ОВ,
OPEN: MON-SAT 9.30am - 6.00pm LONDON
LATE NIGH’
ОРЕМ: MON-SAT 9am - 6.00pm
LATE NIGHT: THURSDAY дат - 8pm
Mr/Mrs/Ms: Initials: Surname Address: 01-309 1111 91-580 4000 vane Postcode: Dept МСЕ 0090
Do you already own a computer If so, which one do you own?
ey ПЕТЕ:
Wf Slimline extra low profile unit - only 6" long!
Top quality drive mechanism. Fully
compatible.
Throughport allows daisy-chaining
other drives а only).
А superbly styled case finished in
computer colours.
1 meg unformatted capacity.
Good length cable for positioning on your desk etc.
AMIGA
ONLY
4444 4
ADD £5 FOR COURIER DELIVERY IF REQUIRED
њ:
СА
Ў л simple low price MIDI Interface for the A500.
W Al the features found on more expensive units. Fully compatible.
Wf MIDI In - MIDI Out - MIDI Thru.
+3 Metre Length
Wf Easily fitted, no special skills required.
Wf When considering a drive replacement remember that quality is most important.
М \ NS P ~~ N we" NS NS » NS NS
SN
SN м"
Wf 512K of FASTRAM to bring 520 STFM up to a full 1040K!!
Y Fitting is a straightforward soldering job - achieved by anyone who has a little experience.
Why not apply for а Datel Charge ‘spread the cost of your purchas
zz
Y High quality direct replacement for mouse on ST/Amiga.
Teflon glides for smoother movement.
Y Rubber coated ball for minimum slip.
Optical system counting - 500/mm. ‘SPECIAL OFFER - FREE MOUSE MAT + MOUSE HOUSE (WORTH £7.99).
Y Now with this superb 512K unit you can simply plug in more memory. Bring your Amiga up to 1Ме Ram in seconds!! W Buy direct from the manufacturer and save!
COMPLETE
FOR VERSION WITH CLOCK/CALENDAR COMPLETE
Available with/without calendar/ clock option.
Wf Simply plugs internally into A500 slot.
Wf Switch in/out with switch supplied.
Wf Fitted in minutes - no soldering etc.
W Accepts 41256 DRams (zero К
RAM fitted). W Battery backed to retain time/date.
FOR VERSION WITH CLOCK/CALENDAR NB THESE PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE RAM CHIPS.
W An casy to handle Handy Scanner featuring 105 mm scanning width & 400 4р! resolution enables you to reproduce graphics & text on your computer screen.
W Adjustable switches for brightness & contrast.
Printout for Epson compatibles.
Y With Geniscan you have the ability
to easily scan images, text & graphics into the ST/AMIGA.
W A powerful partner for Desk Top
Y Powerful software allows for cut & paste editing of images etc.
W Save images in suitable format for most leading packages including DEGAS, NEOCHROME, FLEET- STREET, DELUXE PAINT, PHOTON PAINT, etc.
W Unmatched range of edit/capture facilities not о! ther scanners
Send cheques/POs made |UK ORDERS POST FREE 24hr Credit payable to EUROPE ADD £1
Card Line "Datel Electronics" OVERSEAS ADD £3
PRICES AND SPECIFICATIONS CORRECT AT TIME OF PRESS AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE
CALLERS WELCOME - Please reserve goods by telephone prior to visit.
GOVAN ROAD, FENTON, STOKE-ON-TRENT, ENGLAND.
ZERO 1